"YOF 

CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  CRUZ 


The  Life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln 

Volume  One 


JUJje  Hifc  of 

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first  Idolume 


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Copyright,  1895,  1896.  1898,  1899 
By  THI  S.  S.  MC€LURE  Co. 


Copyright,  1900 
By  DOUBLEDAY  &  McCtuRi  Co. 


Copyright,  1900 
By  MCCLURE,  PHILLIPS  &  Co. 


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T*  my  Father 


PREFACE 


THE  work  here  offered  the  public  was  begun  in  1894  at 
the  suggestion  of  Mr.  S.  S.  McClure  and  Mr.  J.  S.  Phillips, 
editors  of  "  McClure's  Magazine."  Their  desire  was  to  add 
to  our  knowledge  of  Abraham  Lincoln  by  collecting  and  pre- 
serving the  reminiscences  of  such  of  his  contemporaries  as 
were  then  living.  In  undertaking  the  work  it  was  deter- 
mined to  spare  neither  labor  nor  money  and  in  this  deter- 
mination Mr.  McClure  and  his  associates  have  never  wa- 
vered. Without  the  sympathy,  confidence,  suggestion  and 
criticism  which  they  have  given  the  work  it  would  have  been 
impossible.  They  established  in  their  editorial  rooms  what 
might  be  called  a  Lincoln  Bureau  and  from  there  an  or- 
ganized search  was  made  for  reminiscences,  pictures  and 
documents.  To  facilitate  the  work  all  persons  possessing 
or  knowing  of  Lincoln  material  were  asked  through  the 
Magazine  to  communicate  with  the  editor.  The  response 
was  immediate  and  amazing.  Hundreds  of  persons  from 
all  parts  of  the  country  replied.  In  every  case  the  clews 
thus  obtained  were  investigated  and  if  the  matter  was  found 
to  be  new  and  useful  was  secured.  The  author  wrote  thou- 
sands of  letters  and  travelled  thousands  of  miles  in  collecting 
the  material  which  came  to  the  editor  simply  as  a  result  of 
this  request  in  the  magazine.  The  work  thus  became  one  in 
which  the  whole  country  co-operated. 

At  the  outset  it  was  the  intention  of  the  editors  to  use  the 
results  of  the  research  simply  as  a  series  of  unpublished  rem- 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

iniscences,  but  after  a  few  months  the  new  material  gath- 
ered, while  valuable  seemed  to  them  too  fragmentary  to  be 
published  as  it  stood,  and  the  author  was  asked  to  prepare  a 
series  of  articles  on  Lincoln  covering  his  life  up  to  1858  and 
embodying  as  far  as  possible  the  unpublished  material  col- 
lected. These  articles,  which  appeared  in  "  McClure's 
Magazine  "  for  1895  and  1896,  were  received  favorably,  and 
it  was  decided  to  follow  them  by  a  series  on  the  later  life  of 
Lincoln.  This  latter  series  was  concluded  in  September, 
1899,  and  both  series,  with  considerable  supplementary  mat-  , 
ter,  are  published  in  the  present  volumes. 

It  is  impossible  in  this  brief  preface  to  mention  all  who 
have  aided  in  the  work,  but  there  are  a  few  whose  names 
must  not  be  omitted,  so  essential  has  their  assistance  been  to 
the  enterprise. 

From  the  beginning  'Mr.  J.  McCan  Davis  of  Springfield, 
Illinois,  has  been  of  great  service,  particularly  in  examining 
the  files  of  Illinois  newspapers  and  in  interviewing.  It  is  to 
Mr.  Davis's  intelligent  and  patient  research  that  we  owe  the 
report  of  Lincoln's  first  published  speech,  the  curious  letters 
on  the  Adams  law  case,  most  of  the  documents  of  Lincoln's 
early  life  in  New  Salem  and  Springfield,  such  as  his  first 
vote,  his  reports  and  maps  of  surveys,  his  marriage  certifi- 
cate and  many  of  the  letters  printed  in  the  appendix.  Mr. 
William  H.  Lambert  of  Philadelphia  has  also  assisted  us 
constantly  by  his  sympathy  and  suggestions,  and  his  large 
and  valuable  Lincoln  collection  has  been  freely  at  our  dis- 
posal. Other  collections  that  have  been  generously  opened 
are  those  of  O.  H.  Oldroyd  of  Washington,  R.  T. 
Durrett,  Louisville,  Ky.,  C.  F.  Gunther,  Chicago,  111.,  and 
Louis  Vanuxem,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  The  War  Department 
of  the  United  States  Government  has  extended  many  cour- 
tesies, the  War  Records  being  freely  opened  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  War  Records  Commission  aiding  us  in  every  wax 


PREFACE  IX 

in  their  power.  The  librarians  of  the  War  Department,  of 
the  Congressional  Library,  of  the  Boston  Public  Library  and 
of  the  Astor  Library  of  New  York,  have  also  been  most 
helpful. 

The  chief  obligation  which  any  student  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln owes  is  to  the  great  work  of  Messrs.  Nicolay  and  Hay. 
In  it  are  collected"  nearly  all  the  documents  essential  to  a 
study  of  Lincoln's  life.  Their  History  has  been  freely  con- 
sulted in  preparing  this  work  and  whenever  letters  and 
speeches  of  Lincoln  appearing  in  their  collection  of  his 
writings  have  been  quoted,  their  version  has  been  followed. 
Other  lives  of  Lincoln  that  have  been  found  useful  are  those 
of  W.  H.  Herndon,  W.  O.  Stoddard,  John  T.  Morse,  Isaac 
Arnold,  Ward  H.  Lamon,  H.  C.  Whitney,  and  J.  G. 
Holland. 

The  new  material  collected  will,  we  believe,  add  con- 
siderably to  our  knowledge  of  Lincoln's  life.  Docu- 
ments are  presented  establishing  clearly  that  his  mother 
was  not  the  nameless  girl  that  she  has  been  so  generally 
believed.  His  father,  Thomas  Lincoln,  is  shown 'to  have 
been  something  more  than  a  shiftless  "poor  white,"  and 
Lincoln's  early  life,  if  hard  and  crude,  to  have  been  full  of 
honest,  cheerful  effort  at  betterment.  His  struggles  for  a 
livelihood  arid  his  intellectual  development  from  the  time  he 
started  out  for  himself  until  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  are 
traced  with  more  detail  than  in  any  other  biography,  and 
considerable  new  light  is  thrown  on  this  period  of  his  life. 
The  sensational  account  of  his  running  away  from  his  own 
wedding,  accepted  generally  by  historians,  is  shown  to  be 
false.  To  the  period  of  Lincoln's  life  from  1849,  when  he 
gave  up  politics,  until  1858,  the  period  of  the  Lincoln  and 
Douglas  Debates,  the  most  important  contribution  made  is 
the  report  of  what  is  known  as  the  "  Lost  Speech." 

The  second  volume  of  the  Life  contains  as  an  appendix 


X  PREFACE 

196  pages  of  letters,  telegrams  and  speeches  which  3o  not 
appear  in  Lincoln's  "  Complete  Works,"  published  by  his 
private  secretaries  Messrs.  Nicolay  and  Hay.  The  great 
majority  of  these  documents  have  never  been  published  at 
all.  The  source  from  which  they  have  been  obtained  is 
given  in  each  case. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  to  cover  the  history  of  Lin- 
coln's times  save  as  necessary  in  tracing  the  development 
of  his  mind  and  in  illustrating  his  moral  qualities.  It  is 
Lincoln  the  man,  as  seen  by  his  fellows  and  revealed  by  his 
own  acts  and  words,  that  the  author  has  tried  to  picture. 
This  has  been  the  particular  aim  of  the  second  series  of 

articles. 

I.  M.  T. 


CONTENTS 


IDolume  ©ne 

HAPTER  PACK 

I.  The  Origin  of  the  Lincoln  Family — The  Lincolns  in  Ken- 

tucky— Birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln 1 

II.  The  Lincolns  Leave  Kentucky  for  Southern  Indiana— Con- 

ditions of  Life  in  their  New  Home    .....      18 

III.  Abraham   Lincoln's   Early  Opportunities — The  Books  He 

Read — Trips  to  New  Orleans — Impression  He  Made  on 
His  Friends .        •        .29 

IV.  The  Lincolns  Leave  Indiana — The  Journey  to  Illinois — 

Abraham  Lincoln  Starts  Out  for  Himself        .      '  .        •      45 
V.  Lincoln  Secures  a  Position — He  Studies  Grammar— First 

Appearance  in  Politics      .        ....        .     '   .      59 

VI.  The  Black  Hawk  War— Lincoln  Chosen  Captain  of  a  Com- 
pany— Re-enlists  as  an  Independent  Ranger — End  of  the 

War 73 

VII.  Lincoln  Runs  for  State  Assembly  and  is  Defeated — Store- 
keeper— Student — Postmaster — Surveyor         .        .        .89 
VIII.  Electioneering  in  Illinois  in  1834— Lincoln  Reads  Law— First 

Term  as  Assemblyman — Lincoln's  First  Great  Sorrow    .     108 
IX.  Lincoln  is  Re-elected  to  the  Illinois  Assembly — His  First 
Published  Address — Protests  against  Pro-slavery  Reso- 
lutions of  the  Assembly .     124 

X.  Lincoln  Begins  to  Study  Law — Mary  Owens — A  News- 

paper Contest — Growth  of  Political  Influence  .         .        .     147 

XI.  Lincoln's  Engagement  to  Mary  Todd — Breaking  of  the 

Engagement — Lincoln-Shields  Duel  .     .        .  .170 

XII.  Lincoln  Becomes  a  Candidate  for  Congress  and  is  De- 
feated—On the  Stump  in  1844— -Nominated  and  Elected 
to  the  3oth  Congress  •  .  .  .  «  .  .192 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 
Volume  One 

PACK 

Early  Portrait  of  Lincoln         .       *      <.       «       .       .  Frontispiece. 

Land  Warrant facing  2 

Home  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  Grandfather       .        .       ,       facing  4 

Will  of  J.  Hanks  .  ,  .  .  .  .  *  .  facing  6 
Map,  New  Salem  .••...•••.9 
Marriage  Bond  .  .  .  .  .  •  .  .  .  .11 

Return  of  Marriage  Bond       .        .        .        .        •        .        .        .  12 

Appointment  of  Thomas  Lincoln  as  Road  Surveyor      «       •       .  13 

House  where  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  were  Married     facing  14 

Rock  Spring  Farm .        .        .        •        •        •   ,    •        .       facing  16 

Rock  Spring    .        •        «        •        .        .        •        .        .       facing  16 

House  in  which  Lincoln  was  Born          ,     ..',       ,       .      facing  20 

Record  in  Family  Bible  by  Lincoln        «    .  V      ....        .  23 

Lincoln's  Indiana  Farm  .        .        «       *       «       •        •       facing  26 

Thomas  Lincoln's  Bible «       ,      facing  28 

Lincoln's  Exercise  Book 31 

Abraham  Lincoln's  Indiana  Home         .        •        .        .       facing  32 

Lincoln  Working  by  Firelight        .        ,        .        .        .       facing  32 

Facsimile  Lines  from  Copy-book .42 

Swimming  Hole facing  42 

Buckthorn  Valley   .        .       .    .    •        .        .        .        .       facing  42 

Grave  of  Nancy  Hanks  .        *       •       .        .        .        .      facing  46 

New  Salem  Mill      ,        •        .        •       •       *        •        .       facing  58 

Mouth  of  Anderson  Creek      •...,.      facing  58 

Lincoln's  First  Vote        .       .       .       .       .       ...       facing  60 

Kirkham  Grammar .        .       ,       .       •       .       .       ,      facing  64 

Black  Hawk    .        .        ....        ....       facing  74 

Map  of  Illinois «  85 

Discharge  from  Service  in  Black  Hawk  War         «  .    «      facing  86 

Facsimile  of  an  Election  Return     .....      facing  90 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Berry  and  Lincoln  Store facing  92 

Facsimile  of  Letter  by  Postmaster  Lincoln 97 

Court  House  at  Petersburg facing  98 

Report  of  Road  Survey 102 

Map  by  Lincoln 103 

State  House,  Vandalia facing  106 

Lincoln's  Surveying  Instruments facjng  106 

Bowling  Green's  House facing  108 

Grave  of  Ann  Rutledge facing  116 

Joshua  Speed  and  Wife  ....        •       •        •       facing  128 

Map  of  Albany,  111 *        ...        .  131 

Map  of  Illinois 135 

Lincoln's  Cabinet    .        .        .        .        •        •        •        .       facing  148 

Lincoln's  Saddle-Bags     .......       facing  148 

Page  from  Stuart  and  Lincoln  Fee  Book 154 

Stuart  and  Lincoln  Law  Office facing  158 

Harrison  Badge  of  1840           .        .        .        •        *        .       facing  166 

Stuart  and  Lincoln  Adv.  Card        «        .        .        ...        .  169 

Invitation  to  Cotillion 171 

Portrait  of  Shields »        .        .       facing  186 

Mary  Todd  Lincoln         »        •        •        •        •        .        •       facing  190 

Lincoln's  Marriage  License    ...        o        ...        .  191 

Crawford  Well facing  198 

Crawford  House facing  198 


THE  LIFE 

OP 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  LINCOLN  FAMILY — THE  LINCOLNS  IN 
KENTUCKY— BIRTH  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

BETWEEN  the  years  1635  and  1645  there  came  to  the  town 
of  Hingham,  Massachusetts,  from  the  west  of  England,  eight 
men  Earned  Lincoln.  Three  of  these,  Samuel,  Daniel7*arici 
Thomas,  were  brothers.  Their  relationship,  if  any,  to  the 
other  Lincolns  who  came  over  from  the  same  part  of  Eng- 
land at  about  the  same  time,  is  not  clear.  Two  of  these  men, 
Daniel  and  Thomas,  died  without  heirs;  but  Samuel  left  a 
large  family,  including  four  sons.  Among  the  3esceSdants 
of  Samuel  Lincoln's  sons  were  many  good  citizens  and 
prominent  public  officers.  One  was  a  member  of  the  Boston 
Tea  Party,  and  served  as  a  captain  of  artillery  in  the  War  of 
the  Revolution.  Three  served  on  the  brig  Hazard  during 
the  Revolution.  Levi  Lincoln,  a  great-great-grandson  of 
Samuel,  born  in  Hingfiamm  1749,  and  graduated  from  Har- 
vard, was  one  of  the  minute-men  at  Cambridge  immediately 
after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  a  delegate  to  the  convention  in 
Cambridge  for  framing  a  state  constitution,  and  in  1781  was 
elected  to  the  continental  congress,  but  declined  to  serve. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  house  of  representatives  and  of  the 
senate  of  Massachusetts,  and  was  appointed  attorney-general 
of  the  United  States  by  Jefferson ;  for  a  few  months  preced- 
ing the  arrival  of  Madison  he  was  secretary  of  state,  and  in 
1807  he  was  elected  lieutenant-governor  of  Massachusetts. 
(i) 


'*  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

-In  1811  he  was  appointed  associate  justice  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  by  President  Madison,  an  office  which 
he  declined.  From  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war  he 
was  considered  the  head  of  the  Massachusetts  bar. 

His  eldest  son,  Levi  Lincoln,  born  in  1782,  had  also  an 
honorable  career.  He  was  a  Harvard  graduate,  became 
governor  of  the  state  of  Massachusetts,  and  held  other  im- 
portant public  offices.  He  received  the  degree  of  LL.  D. 
from  both  Williams  College,  and  Harvard  College. 

Another  son  of  Levi  Lincoln,  Enoch  Lincoln,  served  in 
congress  from  1818  to  1826.  He  became  governor  of  Maine 
in  1827,  holding  the  position  until  his  death  in  1829.  Enoch 
Lincoln  was  a  writer  of  more  than  ordinary  ability. 

The  fourth  son  of  Samuel  Lincoln  was  called  Mordecai. 
Mordecai  "was  a  rich  "blacksmith,"  as  an  iron-worker  was 
called  in  those  days,  and  the  proprietor  of  numerous  iron- 
works, saw-mills,  and  grist-mills,  which  with  a  goodly 
amount  of  money  he  distributed  at  his  death  among  his  child- 
ren and  grandchildren.  Two  of  his  children,  Mordecai  and 
Abraham,  did  not  remain  in  Massachusetts,  but  removed  to 
New  Jersey,  and  thence  to  Pennsylvania/where  both  became 
rich,  and  dying,  left  fine  estates  to  their  children.  Their  de- 
scendants in  Pennsylvania  have  continued  to  this  day  to  be 
well-to-do  people,  some  of  them  having  taken  prominent 
positions  in  public  affairs.  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Berks 
county,  who  was  born  in  1736  and  died  in  1806,  filled  many 
public  offices,  being  a  member  of  the  general  assembly  of 
Pennsylvania,  of  the  state  convention  of  1787,  and  of  the 
state  constitutional  convention  in  1 790. 

One  of  the  sons  of  this  second  Mordecai,  John,  received 
from  his  father  "  three  hundred  acres  of  land,  lying  in  the 
Jerseys."  But  evidently  he  did  not  care  to  cultivate  his  in- 
heritance, for  about  1758  he  removed  to  Virginia.  "Vir- 
ginia John,"  as  this  member  of  the  family  was  called,  had 


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ORIGIN  OF  THE  LINCOLN  FAMILY  3 

five  sons  one  of  whom,  Jacob,  entered  the  Revolutionary 
army  and  served  as  a  lieutenant  at  Yorktown.  The  third 
son  was  named  Abraham  and  to  him  his  father  conveyed, 
in  17^3",  a  tract "oT2 1 cfacres  of  land  in  what  is  now  Rocking- 
ham  county,  Virginia.  But  though  Abraham  Lincoln  pros- 
pered and  added  to  these  acres  he  was  not  satisfied  to  remain 
many  years  in  Virginia.  It  was  not  strange.  The  farm  on 
which  he  lived  lay  close  to  the  track  of  one  of  the  earliest  of 
those  wonderful  western  migrations  which  from  time  to 
time  have  taken  place  in  this  country.  Soon  after  John_ 
Lincoln  came  into  Virgmia^  vague  rumors  began  to  be  cir- 
culated there  of  a  rich  western  land  called  Kentucky.  These 
rumors  rapidly  developed  into  facts,  as  journeys  were  made 
into  the  new  land  by  John  Finley,  Daniel  Boone  and  other 
adventure-loving  men,  and  settlers  began  to  move  thither 
from  Pennsylvania,  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  There 
were  but  two  roads  by  which  Kentucky  could  be  reached 
then,  the  national  highway  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg 
and  thence  by  the  Ohio,  and  the  highway  which  ran  from 
Philadelphia  south-westward  through  the  Virginia  valley  to 
Cumberland  Gap  and  thence  by  a  trail  called  the  Wilderness 
Road,  northwest  to  the  Ohio  at  Louisville.  The  latter  road 
was  considered  less  dangerous  and  more  practical  than  the 
former  and  by  it  the  greater  part  of  the  emigrants  journeyed. 
Now  this  road  lay  through  Rockingham  county.  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  thus  directly  under  the  influence  of  a  moving 
procession  of  restless  seekers  after  new  lands  and  unknown 
goods.  The  spell  came  upon  him  and,  selling  two  hundred 
and  forty  acres  of  land  in  Rockingham  County  for  five  thou- 
sand pounds  of  the  current  money  of  Virginia — a  sum  worth 
at  that  time  not  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
pounds  sterling — he  joined  a  party  of  travelers  to  the  Wil- 
derness. Returning  a  few  months  later  he  moved  his  whole 
family,  consisting  of  a  wife  and  five  children,  into  Kentucky. 


4  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  ambitious  to  become  a  landed  pro* 
prietor  in  the  new  country,  and  he  entered  a  generous  amount 
of  land — four  hundred  acres  on  Long  run,  in  Jefferson 
county ;  eight  hundred  acres  on  Green  river,  near  the  Green 
river  lick ;  five  hundred  acres  in  Campbell  county.  He  settled 
near  the  first  tract,  where  he  undertook  to  clear  a  farm.  It 
was  a  dangerous  task,  for  the  Indians  were  still  troublesome, 
and  the  settlers,  for  protection,  were  forced  to  live  in  or  near 
forts  or  stations.  In  1784,  when  John  Filson  published  his 
"  History  of  Kentucky,"  though  there  was  a  population  of 
thirty  thousand  in  the  territory,  there  were  but  eighteen 
houses  outside  of  the  stations.  Of  these  stations,  or  stock- 
ades, there  were  but  fifty-two.  According  to  the  tradition 
in  the  Lincoln  family,  Abraham  Lincoln  lived  at  Hughes  Sta- 
tion on  Floyd  creek  in  Jefferson  county. 

All  went  well  with  him  and  his  family  until  1788.  Then, 
one  day,  while  he  and  his  three  sons  were  at  work  in  their 
clearing,  an  unexpected  Indian  shot  killed  the  father.  His 
death  was  a  terrible  blow  to  the  family.  The  large  tracts  of 
land  which  he  had  entered  were  still  uncleared,  and  his  per- 
sonal property  was  necessarily  small.  The  difficulty  of  reach- 
ing the  country  at  that  date,  as  well  as  its  wild  condition, 
made  it  impracticable  for  even  a  wealthy  pioneer  to  own 
more  stock  or  household  furniture  than  was  absolutely  es- 
sential. Abraham  Lincoln  was  probably  as  well  provided 
with  personal  property  as  most  of  his  neighbors.  The  in- 
ventory of  his  estate,  now  owned  by  R.  T.  Durrett,  LL.  D., 
of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  was  returned  by  the  appraisers  on 
March  10,  1789.  It  gives  a  clearer  idea  of  the  condition  in 
which  he  left  his  wife  and  children,  than  any  description 
could  do : 

£  *  d 

x  Sorrel  horse 8 

I  Bladk  horse 9  xo 

I  Red  cow  and  calf 4  xo 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  LINCOLN  FAMILY  5 

£         s.  d. 

I  Brindle  cow  and  calf. 4  *o 

I  Red  cow  and  calf 5 

I  Brindle  bull  yearling I 

I  Brindle  heifer  yearling I 

Bar  spear-plough  and  tackling 2  5 

3  Weeding  hoes 7  6 

Flax  wheel 6 

Pair  smoothing  irons IS 

1  Dozen  pewter  plates I  io 

2  Pewter  dishes 17  6 

Dutch  oven  and  cule,  weighing  15  Ibs...  15 

Small  iron  kettle  and  cule, weighing  12  Ibs.  12 

Tool  adds io 

Hand  saw 5 

One-inch  auger t  •  •  •  6 

Three-quarter  auger 4  <> 

Half-inch  auger 3 

Drawing-knife 3 

Currying-knife IO 

Currier's  knife  and  barking-iron 6 

Old  smooth-bar  gun io 

Rifle  gun 55 

Rifle  gun 3  io 

2  Pott  trammels 14 

i  Feather  bed  and  furniture 5  io 

Ditto 8  5 

i  Bed  and  turkey  feathers  and  furniture...  I  io 

Steeking-iron I  6 

Candle-stick I  6 

i  Axe 9 

£68  i6s  6d 

Soon  after  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  his  widow 
moved  from  Jefferson  county  to  Washington  county.  Here 
the  eldest  son,  Mordecai,  who  inherited  nearly  all  of  the  large 
estate,  became  a  well-to-do  and  popular  citizen.  The  deecl- 
book  of  Washington  county  contains  a  number  of  records  of 
lands  bought  and  sold  by  him.  At  one  time  he  was  sheriff 
of  his  county  and  according  to  a  tradition  of  his  descend- 
ants a  member  of  the  Kentucky  legislature.  His  name  is  not 


6  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

to  be  found  however  in  the  fullest  collection  of  Journals  ot 
the  Kentucky  legislature  which  exists,  that  of  Dr.  R.  T. 
Durett  of  Louisville,  Kentucky.  Mordecai  Lincoln  is  re- 
membered especially  for  his  sporting  tastes,  his  bitter  hatred 
of  the  Indians  and  his  ability  as  a  story-teller.  He  remained 
in  Kentucky  until  late  in  life,  when  he  removed  to  Hancock 
County,  Illinois. 

Of  Josiah,  the  second  son,  we  know  very  little  more  than 
that  ftie  records  show  that  he  owned  and  sold  land.  He  left 
Kentucky  when  a  young  man,  to  settle  on  the  Blue  river,  in 
Harrison  County,  Indiana,  and  there  he  died.  The  two 
daughters  married  into  well-known  Kentucky  families;  the 
elder,  Mary,  marrying  Ralph  Crume;  the  younger,  Nancy, 
William  Brumfield. 

The  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  saddest  for  the  young- 
est of  the  children,  a  lad  of  ten  years  at  the  time,  named 
Thomas,  for  it  turned  him  adrift  to  become  a  "  wandering 
laboring-boy  "  before  he  had  learned  even  to  read.  Thomas 
seems  not  to  have  inherited  any  of  the  father's  estate,  and 
from  the  first  to  have  been  obliged  to  shift  for  himself.  For 
several  years  he  supported  himself  by  rough  farm  work  of 
all  kinds,  learning,  in  the  meantime,  the  trade  of  carpenter 
and  cabinet-maker.  According  to  one  of  his  acquaintances, 
"  Tom  had  the  best  set  of  tools  in  what  was  then  and  now 
Washington  County,"  and  was  "  a  good  carpenter  for  those 
days,  when  a  cabin  was  built  mainly  with  the  axe,  and  not  a 
nail  or  bolt-hinge  in  it;  only  leathers  and  pins  to  the  door, 
and  no  glass."  Although  a  skilled  craftsman  for  his  day, 
he  never  became  a  thrifty  or  ambitious  man.  "  He  would 
work  energetically  enough  when  a  job  was  brought  to  him, 
but  he  would  never  seek  a  job."  But  if  Thomas  Lincoln 
plied  his  trade  spasmodically,  he  shared  the  pioneer's  love  for 
land,  for  when  but  twenty-five  years  old,  and  still  without 
the  responsibility  of  a  family,  he  bought  a  farm  in  Hardiri 


^    ^%X  NS  ' 


§  l>4,*  <¥$  «  :j 

^^;a^i 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  LINCOLN  FAMILY  7 

County,  Kentucky.  This  fact  is  of  importance,  proving  as  it 
does  that  TEoifias  Lincoln  was  not  the  altogether  shiftless 
man  he  has  been  pictured.  Certainly  he  must  have  been 
above  the  grade  of  the  ordinary  country  boy,  to  have  had  the 
energy  and  ambition  to  learn  a  trade  and  secure  a  farm 
through  his  own  efforts  by  the  time  he  was  twenty-five.  He 
was  illiterate,  never  doing  more  "  in  the  way  of  writing 
than  to  bunglingly  write  his  own  name."  Nevertheless,  he 
had  the  reputation  in  the  country  of  being  good-natured  and 
obliging,  and  possessing  what  his  neighbors  called  "  good 
strong  horse-sense."  Although  he  was  a  "  very  quiet  sort 
of  a  man,"  he  was  known  to  be  determined  in  his  opinions, 
and  quite  competent  to  defend  his  rights  by  force  if  they  were 
too  flagrantly  violated.  He  was  a  moral  man,  and,  in  the 
crude  way  of  the  pioneer,  religious. 

In  1806  Thomas  Lincoln  married.  The  early  history  of 
his  wife,  Nancy  Hanks,  has  been  until  recently  obscured  by 
contradictory  traditions.  The  compilation  of  the  genealogy 
of  the  Hanks  family  in  America,  which  has  been  completed 
by  Mrs.  Caroline  Hanks  Hitchcock,  though  not  yet  printed, 
has  fortunately  cleared  up  the  mystery  of  her  birth.  Ac- 
cording to  the  records  which  Mrs.  Hitchcock  has  gathered 
and  a  brief  summary  of  which  she  has  published  in  a  valuable 
little  volume  called  "  Nancy  Hanks,"  the  family  to  which  j 
Thomas  Lincoln's  wife  belonged  first  came  1:6  this  country  in  1 
1699  and  settled  in  Plymouth,  Massachusetts. 

This  early  settler,  Benjamin  Hanks,  had  eleven  children, 
one  of  whom,  William,  went  to  Virginia,  settling  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Rappahannock  river.  William  Hanks  had  five 
sons,  four  of  whom,  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, moved  to  Amelia  County,  Virginia,  where,  according 
to  old  deeds  unearthed  by  Mrs.  Hitchcock,  they  owned  nearly 
a  thousand  acres  of  land.  Joseph  Hanks,  the  youngest  of 
these  sons,  married  Nancv^  Shipley.  This  Miss  Shipley  was 


8  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

a  daughter  of  Robert  and  Rachel  Shipley  of  Lurenburg 
County,  Virginia,  and  a  sister  of  Mary  Shipley,  who  married 
Abraham  Lincoln  of  Rockingham  County,  and  who  was  the 
mother  of  Thomas  Lincoln. 

About  1789  Joseph  Hanks  and  a  large  number  of  his  rela- 
tives in  Amelia  County  moved  into  Kentucky,  where  he  set- 
tled near  what  is  now  Elizabethtown.  He  remained  here 
until  his  death  in  1793.  Joseph  Hanks's  will  may  still  be  seen 
in  the  county  records  of  Bardstown.  He  leaves  to  each  of  his 
sons  a  horse,  to  each  of  his  daughters  a  "  heifer  yearling/' 
though  these  bequests,  as  well  as  the  "  whole  estate  "  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land  was  to  be  the  property  of  his 
wife  during  her  life,  when  it  was  to  be  divided  equally 
among  all  the  children. 

Soon  after  Joseph  Hanks's  death  his  wife  died  and  the 
family  was  scattered.  The  youngest  of  the  eight  children  left 
fatherless  and  motherless  by  the  death  of  Joseph  Hanks  and 
his  wife  was  a  little  girl  called  Nancy.  She  was  but  nine 
years  old  at  the  time  and  a  home  was  found  for  her  with  her 
aunt,  Lucy  Shipley,  wife  of  Richard  Berry,  who  had  a  farm 
in  Washington  county,  near  'Springfield.  Nancy  had  a  large 
number  of  relatives  near  there,  all  of  whom  had  come  from 
Virginia  with  her  father.  The  little  girl  grew  up  into  a 
sweet-tempered  and  beautiful  woman  whom  tradition  paints 
not  only  as  the  center  of  all  the  country  merry-making  but  as 
a  famous  spinner  and  housewife. 

It  was  probably  at  the  house  of  Richard  Berry  that 
Thomas  Lincoln  met  Nancy  Hanks,  for  he  doubtless  spent 
more  or  less  time  nearby  with  his  oldest  brother,  Mordecai 
Lincoln,  who  was  a  resident  of  Washington  County  and  a 
friend  and  neighbor  of  the  Berry's.  He  may  have  seen  her, 
too,  at  the  home  of  her  brother,  Joseph  Hanks,  in  Elizabeth- 
town.  This  Joseph  Hanks  was  a  carpenter  and  had  in-* 
herited  the  old  home  of  the  family  and  it  was  with  him  that 


MAP  OF  NEW   SALEM,   ILLINOIS. 

Drawn  for  this  biography  by  J.  McCann  Davis,  aided  by  surviving  inhabitants 
of  New  Salem.  Dr.  John  Allen,  who  lived  across  the  road  from  Berry  &  Lincoln's 
store,  attended  Ann  Rutledge  in  her  last  illness.  None  of  the  buildings  are  in 
existence  to-day. 


10  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

Thomas  Lincoln  learned  his  trade.  At  all  events,  the  two 
cousins  became  engaged  and  on  June  10,  1806,  their  mar- 
riage bond  was  issued  according  to  the  law  of  the  time. 
Two  days  later  according  to  the  marriage  returns  of  the  Rev- 
erend Jesse  Head,  they  were  married, — a  fact  duly  attested 
also  by  the  marriage  certificate  made  out  by  the  officiating 
minister. 

The  marriage  took  place  at  the  home  of  Richard  Berry, 
near  Beechland  in  Washington  County,  Kentucky.  It  was 
celebrated  in  the  boisterous  style  of  one  hundred  years  ago, 
and  was  followed  by  an  infare,  given  by  the  bride's  guardian. 
To  this  celebration  came  all  the  neighbors,  and,  according 
to  an  entertaining  Kentucky  centenarian,  Dr.  Christopher 
Columbus  Graham,  even  those  who  happened  in  the  neigh- 
borhood were  made  welcome.  He  tells  how  he  heard  of  the 
wedding  while  "  out  hunting  for  roots,"  and  went  "  just  to 
get  a  good  supper.  I  saw  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  at  her  wed- 
ding," continues  Mr.  Graham,  "  a  fresh  looking  girl,  I  should 
say  over  twenty.  I  was  at  the  infare,  too,  given  by  John  H. 
Parrott,  her  guardian — and  only  girls  with  money  had 
guardians  appointed  by  the  court.  We  had  bearmeat ;  .  .  . 
venison;  wild  turkey  and  ducks;  eggs,  wild  and  tame,  so 
common  that  you  could  buy  them  at  two  bits  a  bushel ;  maple 
sugar,  swung  on  a  string,  to  bite  off  for  coffee  or  whiskey; 
syrup  in  big  gourds ;  peach-and-honey ;  a  sheep  that  the  two 
families  barbecued  whole  over  coals  of  wood  burned  in  a 
pit,  and  covered  with  green  boughs  to  keep  the  juice  in;  and 
a  race  for  the  whiskey  bottle." 

After  his  marriage  Thomas  Lincoln  settled  in  Elizabeth- 
town.  His  home  was  a  log  cabin,  but  at  that  date  few  peo- 
ple in  the  state  had  anything  else.  Kentucky  had  been  in  the 
union  only  fourteen  years.  When  admitted,  the  few  brick 
structures  within  its  boundaries  were  easily  counted,  and 
there  were  only  log  school-houses  and  churches.  Fourteen 


S^jtafflfcH«B*£ 


KM^-r***: 
***^£&~% 


KETUEN  OP  MARRIAGE  OF  THOMAS  LINCOLN  AND  NANCY  HANKS. 

From  a  tracing  of  the  original,  made  by  Henry  Whitney  Cleveland.    This  certificate  was  discovered  about 
1885  by  W.  F.  Booker,  Esq.,  Clerk  of  Washington  County,  Kentucky. 


ORIGIN  OP  THE  LINCOLN  FAMILY 


13 


years  had  brought  great  improvements,  but  the  majority  of 
the  population  still  lived  in  log  cabins,  so  that  the  home  of 
Thomas  Lincoln  was  as  good  as  most  of  his  neighbors.  Lit- 
tle is  known  of  his  position  in  Elizabethtown,  though  we  have 
proof  that  he  had  credit  in  the  community,  for  the  descend- 
ants of  two  of  the  early  store-keepers  still  remember  seeing 
on  their  grandfathers'  account  books  sundry  items  charged 
to  T.  Lincoln.  Tools  and  groceries  were  the  chief  purchases 
he  made,  though  on  one  of  the  ledgers  a  pair  of  "  silk  sus- 
penders," worth  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents,  was  entered.  He 
not  only  enjoyed  a  certain  credit  with  the  people  of  Eliza- 
bethtown; he  was  sufficiently  respected  by  the  public  authori- 
ties to  be  appointed  in  1816  a  road  surveyor,  or,  as  the  office 


^ 


FACSIMILE  OF  THE  APPOINTMENT  OF  THOMAS  LINCOLN  AS  ROAD  SURVEYOR. 

is  known  in  some  localities,  supervisor.  It  was  not,  to  be 
sure,  a  position  of  great  importance,  but  it  proved  that  he  was 
considered  fit  to  oversee  a  body  of  men  at  a  task  of  consider- 
able value  to  the  community.  Indeed,  all  of  the  documents 
mentioning  Thomas  Lincoln  which  have  been  discovered 
show  him  to  have  had  a  much  better  position  in  Hardin 
county  than  'he  has  been  credited  with. 

It  was  at  Elizabethtown  that  the  first  child  of  the  Lincolns, 
a  daughter,  was  born.  Soon  after  this  event  Thomas  Lin- 
coln decided  to  combine  farming  with  his  trade,  and  moved 


14  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

to  the  farm  he  had  bought  in  1803  on  the  Big  SoutH  fork  of 
Nolin  creek,  in  Hardin  County,  now  La  Rue  County,  three 
miles  from  Hodgensville,  and  about  fourteen  miles  from 
Elizabethtown.  Here  he  was  living  when,  on  February  12, 
1809,  his  second  child,  a  boy,  was  born.  The  little  new- 
comer was  called  Abraham,  after  his  grandfather — a  name 
which  had  persisted  through  many  preceding  generations  in 
both  the  Lincoln  and  Hanks  families. 

The  home  into  which  the  child  came  was  the  ordinary  one 
of  the  poorer  western  pioneer — a  one-roomed  cabin  with  a 
huge  outside  chimney,  a  single  window,  and  a  rude  door. 
The  description  of  its  squalor  and  wretchedness,  which  are 
so  familiar,  have  been  overdrawn.  Dr.  Graham,  than  whom 
there  is  no  better  authority  on  the  life  of  that  day,  and  who 
knew  Thomas  Lincoln  well,  declares  energetically  that  "It  is 
all  stuff  about  Tom  Lincoln  keeping  his  wife  in  an  open  shed 
in  a  winter.  The  Lincolns  had  a  cow  and  calf,  milk  and 
butter,  a  good  feather  bed — for  I  have  slept  on  it.  They  had 
home- woven  'kiverlids/  big  and  little  pots,  a  loom  and  wheel. 
Tom  Lincoln  was  a  man  and  took  care  of  his  wife." 

The  Lincoln  home  was  undoubtedly  rude,  and  in  many 
ways  uncomfortable,  but  it  sheltered  a  happy  family,  and  its 
poverty  affected  the  new  child  but  little.  He  grew  to  be 
robust  and  active  and  soon  learned  how  endless  are  the  de- 
lights and  interests  the  country  offers  to  a  child.  He  had 
several  companions.  There  was  his  sister  Nancy,  or  Sarah 
— both  names  are  given  her — two  years  his  senior ;  there  was 
a  cousin  of  his  mother's,  ten  years  older,  Dennis  Friend 
(commonly  called  Dennis  Hanks),  an  active  and  ingenious 
leader  in  sports  and  mischief ;  and  there  were  the  neighbors' 
boys.  One  of  the  latter,  Austin  Gollaher,  lived  to  be  over 
ninety  years  of  age  and  to  his  death  related  with  pride 
how  he  played  with  young  Lincoln  in  the  shavings  of  his 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  LINCOLN  FAMILY         IS 

father's  carpenter  shop,  hunted  coons  and  ran  the  woods  with 
him,  and  once  even  saved  his  life. 

"  Yes,"  Mr.  Gollaher  was  accustomed  to  say,  "  the  story 
that  I  once  saved  Abraham  Lincoln's  life  is  true.  He  and  I 
had  been  going  to  school  together  for  a  year  or  more,  and 
had  become  greatly  attached  to  each  other.  Then  school  dis- 
banded on  account  of  there  being  so  few  scholars,  and  we  did 
not  see  each  other  much  for  a  long  while.  One  Sunday  my 
mother  visited  the  Lincolns,  and  I  was  taken  along.  Abe 
and  I  played  around  all  day.  Finally,  we  concluded  to  cross 
the  creek  to  hunt  for  some  partridges  young  Lincoln  had  seen 
the  day  before.  The  creek  was  swollen  by  a  recent  rain,  and, 
in  crossing  on  the  narrow  footlog,  Abe  fell  in.  Neither  of 
us  could  swim.  I  got  a  long  pole  and  held  it  out  to  Abe,  who 
grabbed  it.  Then  I  pulled  him  ashore.  He  was  almost 
dead,  and  I  was  badly  scared.  I  rolled  and  pounded  him  in 
good  earnest.  Then  I  got  him  by  the  arms  and  shook  him, 
the  water  meanwhile  pouring  out  of  his  mouth.  By  this 
means  I  succeeded  in  bringing  him  to,  and  he  was  soon  all 
right. 

"  Then  a  new  difficulty  confronted  us.  If  our  mothers 
discovered  our  wet  clothes  they  would  whip  us.  This  we 
dreaded  from  experience,  and  determined  to  avoid.  It  was 
June,  the  sun  was  very  warm,  and  we  soon  dried  our  clothing 
by  spreading  it  on  the  rocks  about  us.  We  promised  never 
to  tell  the  story,  and  I  never  did  until  after  Lincoln's  tragic 
end." 

When  the  little  boy  was  about  four  years  old  the  first  real 
excitement  of  his  life  occurred.  His  father  moved  from  the 
farm  on  Nolin  creek  to  another  some  fifteen  miles  northeast 
on  Knob  creek,  and  here  the  child  began  to  go  to  school.  At 
that  day  the  schools  in  the  west  were  usually  accidental,  de- 
pending upon  the  coming  of  some  poor  and  ambitious  young 
man  who  was  willing  to  teach  a  few  terms  while  he  looked 
for  an  opening  to  something  better.  The  terms  were  ir- 
regular, their  length  being  decided  by  the  time  the  settlers 


16  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

felt  able  to  board  the  master  and  pay  his  small  salary.  The 
chief  qualifications  for  a  school-master  seem  to  have  been 
enough  strength  to  keep  the  "  big  boys  "  in  order,  though 
one  high  authority  affirms  that  pluck  went  "  for  a  heap  sight 
more'n  sinnoo  with  boys." 

Many  of  the  itinerant  masters  were  Catholics,  strolling 
Irishmen  from  the  colony  in  Tennessee,  or  French  priests 
from  Kaskaskia.  Lincoln's  first  teacher,  Zachariah  Riney, 
was  a  Catholic.  Of  his  second  teacher,  Caleb  Hazel,  we  know 
even  less  than  of  Riney.  Mr.  Gollaher  says  that  Abraham 
Lincoln,  in  those  days  when  he  was  his  schoolmate,  was  "  an 
unusually  bright  boy  at  school,  and  made  splendid  progress 
in  his  studies.  Indeed,  he  learned  faster  than  any  of  his 
schoolmates.  Though  so  young,  he  studied  very  hard.  He 
would  get  spicewood  bushes,  hack  them  up  on  a  log,  and 
burn  them  two  or  three  together,  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
light  by  which  he  might  pursue  his  studies." 

Probably  the  boy's  mother  had  something  to  do  with  the 
spice-wood  illuminations.  Tradition  has  it  that  Mrs.  Lincoln 
took  great  pains  to  teach  her  children  what  she  knew,  and 
that  at  her  knee  they  heard  all  the  Bible  lore,  fairy  tales,  and 
country  legends  that  she  had  been  able  to  gather  in  her  poor 
life. 

Besides  the  "A  B  C  schools,"  as  Lincoln  called  them,  the 
only  other  medium  of  education  in  the  country  districts  of 
Kentucky  in  those  days  was  "preaching."  Itinerants  like  the 
school-masters,  the  preachers,  of  whatever  denomination, 
were  generally  uncouth  and  illiterate ;  the  code  of  morals  they 
taught  was  mainly  a  healthy  one,  and  they,  no  doubt,  did 
much  to  keep  the  consciences  of  the  pioneers  awake.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  believe  that  they  ever  did  much  for  the  moral  training 
of  young  Lincoln,  though  he  certainly  got  his  first  notion  of 
public  speaking  from  them ;  and  for  years  in  his  boyhood  one 
of  hi*  chief  delights  was  to  gather  his  playmates  about  him, 


VIEW   OF   ROCK    SPRING   FARM,    WHERE   PRESIDENT   LINCOLN    WAS   BORN. 

Prom  a  photograph  taken  in  September,  1895,  for  this  biography.   The  house  in  which 
Lincoln  was  born  is  seen  to  the  right,  in  the  background 

See  page  U 


ROCK    SPRING,    ON    THE    FARM    WHERE    LINCOLN    WAS    BORN 
From  a  photograph  taken  in  September,  1895,  for  this  biography 

See  page  11 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  LINCOLN  FAMILY          1 7 

and  preach  and  thump  until  he  had  his  auditors  frightened 
or  in  tears. 

As  soon  as  the  child  was  strong  enough  to  follow  his  father 
in  the  fields,  he  was  put  to  work  at  simple  tasks ; — bringing 
tools,  carrying  water,  picking  berries,  dropping  seeds.  He 
learned  to  know  his  father's  farm  from  line  to  line  and  years 
after,  when  President  of  the  United  States,  he  recalled  in  a 
conversation  at  the  White  House,  in  the  presence  of  Dr.  J.  J. 
Wright  of  Emporia,  Kansas,  the  arrangement  of  the  fields 
and  an  incident  of  his  own  childish  experience  as  a  farmer's 
son.  "  Mr.  President,"  one  of  the  visitors  had  asked,  "  how 
would  you  like  when  the  war  is  over  to  visit  your  old  home 
in  Kentucky  ?  "  "I  would  like  it  very  much,"  Mr.  Lin- 
coln replied.  "  I  remember  that  old  home  very  well.  Our 
farm  was  composed  of  three  fields.  It  lay  in  the  valley  sur- 
rounded by  high  hills  and  deep  gorges.  Sometimes  when 
there  came  a  big  rain  in  the  hills  the  water  would  come  down 
through  the  gorges  and  spread  all  over  the  farm.  The  last 
thing  that  I  remember  of  doing  there  was  one  Saturday 
afternoon ;  the  other  boys  planted  the  corn  in  what  we  called 
the  big  field;  it  contained  seven  acres — and  I  dropped  the 
pumpkin  seed.  I  dropped  two  seeds  every  other  hill  and 
every  other  row.  The  next  Sunday  morning  there  came  a 
big  rain  in  the  hills,  it  did  not  rain  a  drop  in  the  valley,  but 
the  water  coming  down  through  the  gorges  washed  ground, 
corn,  pumpkin  seeds  and  all  clear  off  the  field" 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  LINCOLNS  LEAVE  KENTUCKY  FOR  SOUTHERN  INDIANA 
—  CONDITIONS  OF  LIFE  IN  THEIR  NEW   HOME 


IN  1816  a  great  event  happened  to  the  little  boy. 
father  emigrated  from  Knob  creek  to  Indiana.  "  This  re- 
moval was  partly  on  account  of  slavery,  but  chiefly  on  ac- 
count of  the  difficulty  in  land  titles  in  Kentucky,"  says  his 
son.  It  was  due,  as  well,  no  doubt,  to  the  fascination  which  an 
unknown  country  has  always  for  the  adventurous,  and  to  that 
restless  pioneer  spirit  which  drives  even  men  of  sober  judg- 
ment continually  towards  the  frontier,  in  search  of  a  place 
where  the  conflict  with  nature  is  less  severe  —  some  spot 
farther  on,  to  which  a  friend  or  a  neighbor  has  preceded,  and 
from  which  he  sends  back  glowing  reports.  It  may  be  that 
Thomas  Lincoln  was  tempted  into  Indiana  by  the  reports  of 
his  brother  Joseph,  who  had  settled  on  the  Big  Blue  river  in 
that  State.  At  all  events,  in  the  fall  of  1816  he  started  with 
wife  and  children  and  household  stores  to  journey  by  horse- 
back and  by  wagon  from  Knob  creek  to  a  farm  selected  on  a 
previous  trip  he  had  made.  This  farm,  located  near  Little 
Pigeon  creek,  about  fifteen  miles  north  of  the  Ohio  river,  and 
a  mile  and  a  half  east  of  Gentryville,  Spencer  County,  was  in 
a  forest  so  dense  that  the  road  for  the  travellers  had  to  be 
hewed  out  as  they  went. 

To  a  boy  of  seven  years,  free  from  all  responsibility,  and 
too  vigorous  to  feel  its  hardships,  such  a  journey  must  have 
been  a  long  delight  and  wonder.  Life  suddenly  ceased  its 
routine,  and  every  day  brought  forth  new  scenes  and  adven- 
tures. Little  Abraham  saw  forests  greater  than  he  had  ever 

18 


LEAVE  KENTUCKY  FOR  INDIANA  19 

dreamed  of,  peopled  by  strange  birds  and  beasts,  and  he 
crossed  a  river  so  wide  that  it  must  have  seemed  to  him  like 
the  sea.  To  Thomas  and  Nancy  Lincoln  the  journey  was 
probably  a  hard  and  sad  one ;  but  to  the  children  beside  them 
it  was  a  wonderful  journey  into  the  unknown. 

On  arriving  at  the  new  farm  an  axe  was  put  into  the  boy's 
hands,  and  he  was  set  to  work  to  aid  in  clearing  a  field  for 
:orn,  and  to  help  build  the  "  half-face  camp  "  which  for  a 
year  was  the  home  of  the  Lincolns.  There  were  few  more 
primitive  homes  in  the  wilderness  of  Indiana  in  1816  than 
this  of  young  Lincoln,  and  there  were  few  families,  even  in 
that  day,  who  were  forced  to  practice  more  make-shifts  to 
get  a  living.  The  cabin  which  took  the  place  of  the  "  half- 
face  camp  "  had  but  one  room,  with  a  loft  above.  For  a 
long  time  there  was  no  window,  door,  or  floor ;  not  even  the 
traditional  deer-skin  hung  before  the  exit;  there  was  no 
oiled  paper  over  the  opening  for  light;  there  was  no  pun- 
cheon covering  on  the  ground. 

The  furniture  was  of  their  own  manufacture.  The  table 
and  chairs  were  of  the  rudest  sort — rough  slabs  of  wood  in 
which  holes  were  bored  and  legs  fitted  in.  Their  bedstead,  or, 
rather  bed-frame,  was  made  of  poles  held  up  by  two  outer 
posts,  and  the  ends  made  firm  by  inserting  the  poles  in  auger- 
holes  that  had  been  bored  in  a  log  which  was  a  part  of  the 
wall  of  the  cabin ;  skins  were  its  chief  covering.  Little  Abra- 
ham's bed  was  even  more  primitive.  He  slept  on  a  heap  of 
dry  leaves  in  the  corner  of  the  loft,  to  which  h?  mounted  by 
means  of  pegs  driven  into  the  wall. 

Their  food,  if  coarse,  was  usually  abundant ;  the  chief  diffi- 
culty in  supplying  the  larder  was  to  secure  any  variety.  Of 
game  there  was  plenty — deer,  bear,  pheasants,  wild  turkeys, 
ducks,  birds  of  all  kinds.  There  were  fish  in  the  streams,  and 
wild  fruits  of  many  kinds  in  the  woods  in  the  summer,  and 
these  were  dried  for  winter  use ;  but  the  difficulty  of  raising 


20  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

and  milling  corn  and  wheat  was  very  great.  Indeed,  in  many 
places  in  the  west  the  first  flour  cake  was  an  historical  event. 
Corn-dodger  was  the  every-day  bread  of  the  Lincoln  house- 
hold, the  wheat  cake  being  a  dainty  reserved  for  Sunday 
mornings. 

Potatoes  were  the  only  vegetable  raised  in  any  quantity, 
and  there  were  times  in  the  Lincoln  family  when  they  were 
the  only  food  on  the  table ;  a  fact  proved  to  posterity  by  the 
oft-quoted  remark  of  Abraham  to  his  father  after  the  latter 
had  asked  a  blessing  over  a  dish  of  roasted  potatoes — "  that 
they  were  mighty  poor  blessings."  Not  only  were  they  all 
the  Lincolns  had  for  dinner  sometimes;  one  of  their  neigh- 
bors tells  of  calling  there  when  raw  potatoes,  pared  and 
washed,  were  passed  around  instead  of  apples  or  other  fruit. 
They  even  served  as  a  kind  of  pioneer  chauffrette — being 
baked  and  given  to  the  children  to  carry  in  their  hands  as 
they  started  to  school  or  on  distant  errands  in  winter  time. 

The  food  was  prepared  in  the  rudest  way,  for  the  supply  of 
both  groceries  and  cooking  utensils  was  limited.  The  for- 
mer were  frequently  wanting  entirely,  and  as  for  the  latter, 
the  most  important  item  was  the  Dutch  oven.  An  indis- 
pensable article  in  the  primitive  kitchen  outfit  was  the  "  grit- 
ter."  It  was  made  by  flattening  out  an  old  piece  of  tin 
punching  it  full  of  holes,  and  nailing  it  on  a  board.  Upon 
this  all  sorts  of  things  were  grated,  even  ears  of  corn,  in- 
which  slow  way,  enough  meal  was  sometimes  secured  for 
bread.  Old  tin  was  used  for  many  other  contrivances  be- 
sides the  "  gritter,"  and  every  scrap  was  carefully  saved. 
Most  of  the  dishes  were  of  pewter;  the  spoons,  iron;  the 
knives  and  forks  horn-handled. 

The  Lincolns  of  course  made  their  own  soap  and  candles, 
and  if  they  'had  cotton  or  wool  to  wear  they  had  literally  to 
grow  it.  It  is  probable  that  young  Abraham  Lincoln  wore 
little  cotton  or  linsey-woolsey.  His  trousers  were  of  roughly 
tanned  deer-skin,  his  foot-covering  a  home-made  moccasin. 


LEAVE  KENTUCKY  FOR  INDIANA         n 

his  cap  a  coon-skin;  it  was  only  the  material  for  his  blouse  or 
shirt  that  was  woven  at  home.  If  this  costume  had  some  ob- 
vious disadvantages,  it  was  not  to  be  despised-  So  good  an 
aothority  as  Governor  Reynolds  says  of  one  of  its  articles  — 
the  linsey-woolsey  shirt  —  "  It  was  an  excellent  garment.  I 
have  never  feft  so  happy  and  healthy  since  I  put  it  ofL" 

These  "pretty  pinching  times,"  as  Abraham  Lincoln  once 
described  the  early  days  in  Indiana,  lasted  tmtil  1819,  The 
year  before  Nancy  TJiuinln  had  died,  and 


no  more  talora  place  could  be  conceived  than  this  pioneer 
home  bereft  of  its  guiding  spirit  ;btrt  finally  Thomas  Lincoln 
went  back  to  Kentucky  and  returned  with  a  new  wife  —  SaHy 
Bush  Johnston,  a  widow  with  three  children,  John,  Sarah, 
and  Matilda.  The  new  mother  came  wefl  provided  with 
household  famTtwy  ^brfigfngflmty  wMiy  imLmmijf  fq»  at- 
tic Abraham  —  "one  fine  bureau,  one  table,  one  set  of  chairs, 
one  large  clothes-chest,  cooking  utensils,  knives,  forks,  bed- 
ding, 2nd  other  articles.**  She  was  a  woman  of  energy, 
thrift^  and  gendeness,  and  at  once  made  the  cabin  honie-fike 
and  taught  the  t&SJfafn  Jiafrgjf  of  cleanliness  ami  comfort. 
Abraham  was  ten  years  old  when  Ms  new  mother  came 
from  Kentucky,  ana  Be  was  already  an  important  mcmpcr 
of  the  family.  He  was  remarkably  strong  for  his  years,  and 
the  worjc  he  could  do  in  a  day  was  a  decided  advantage  to 
Thomas  Lincoln.  The  axe  which  had  been  put  into  his  load 
to  help  in  making  the  first  clearing,  he  had  never  been  al- 
lowed to  drop;  indeed,  as  he  says  hitns*-!^  "  from  that  tin 
within  his  twenty-third  year  he  was  almost  constantly  hand* 
ling  that  most  useful  instrument."  Besides,  he  drove  the 
team,  cut  the  elm  and  finn  brush  with  which  the  stock  was 
often  fed,  learned  to  handle  the  old  sbo  vd-pkragh,  to  wield 
the  sickle,  to  thresh  the  wheat  wnh  a  flail  to  fan  and  dean  k 
with  a  sheet,  to  go  to  mffl  and  turn  the  hard-earned  gmt 
into  floor.  In  short,  he  learned  aD  the  trades  the  settler's 


22  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

boy  must  know,  and  so  well  that  when  his  father  did  not 
need  him  he  could  hire  him  to  the  neighbors.  Thomas 
Lincoln  also  taught  him  the  rudiments  of  carpentry  and 
cabinet-making,  and  kept  him  busy  much  of  the  time  as  his 
assistant  in  his  trade.  There  are  houses  still  standing,  in 
and  near  Gentryville,  on  which  it  is  said  he  worked. 

As  he  grew  older  he  became  one  of  the  strongest  and  most 
popular  "  hands  "  in  the  vicinity,  and  much  of  his  time  was 
spent  as  a  "  hired  boy  "  on  some  neighbor's  farm.  For 
twenty-five  cents  a  day — paid  to  his  father — he  was  hostler, 
ploughman,  wood-chopper,  and  carpenter,  besides  helping 
the  women  with  the  "  chores."  For  them  he  was  ready  to 
carry  water,  make  the  fire,  even  tend  the  baby.  No  wonder 
that  a  laborer  who  never  refused  to  do  anything  asked  of 
him,  who  could  "  strike  with  a  maul  heavier  blows  "  and 
"  sink  an  axe  deeper  into  the  wood  "  than  anybody  else  in 
the  community,  and  who  at  the  same  time  was  general  help 
for  the  women,  never  lacked  a  job  in  Gentryville. 

Of  all  the  tasks  his  rude  life  brought  him,  none  seems  to 
have  suited  him  better  than  going  to  the  mill.  It  was,  per- 
haps, as  much  the  leisure  enforced  by  this  trip  as  anything 
else  that  attracted  him.  The  machinery  was  primitive,  and 
each  man  waited  his  turn,  which  sometimes  was  long  in  com- 
ing. A  story  is  told  by  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Illinois  of  go- 
ing many  miles  with  a  grist,  and  waiting  so  long  for  his  turn, 
that  when  it  came,  he  and  his  horse  had  eaten  all  the  corn 
and  he  had  none  to  grind.  This  waiting  with  other  men 
and  boys  on  like  errands  gave  an  opportunity  for  talk, 
story-telling,  and  games,  which  were  Lincoln's  delight. 

If  Abraham  Lincoln's  life  was  rough  and  hard  it  was 
not  without  amusements.  At  home  the  rude  household  was 
overflowing  with  life.  There  were  Abraham  and  his  sister, 
a  stepbrother  and  two  stepsisters,  and  a  cousin  of  Nancy 


By  permission,  from  Herndonand  V\eik's  "  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln." 
Copyright  1892.  by  D.  Aooletoa  A  Uk  -, 


LEAVE  KENTUCKY  FOR  INDIANA  25 

Hanks  Lincoln,  Dennis  (Friend)  Hanks,  whom  misfortune 
had  made  an  inmate  of  the  Lincoln  home — quite  enough 
to  plan  sports  and  mischief  and  keep  time  from  growing  dull. 
Thomas  Lincoln  and  Dennis  Hanks  were  both  famous  story- 
tellers, and  the  Lincolns  spent  many  a  cozy  evening  about 
their  cabin  fire,  repeating  the  stories  they  knew. 

Of  course  the  boys  hunted.  Not  that  Abraham  ever  became 
a  true  sportsman ;  indeed,  he  seems  to  have  lacked  the  genu- 
ine sporting  instinct.  In  a  curious  autobiography,  written 
entirely  in  the  third  person,  which  Lincoln  prepared  at  the 
request  of  a  friend  in  1860,  he  says  of  his  exploits  as  a 
hunter:  "A  few  days  before  the  completion  of  his  eighth 
year,  in  the  absence  of  his  father,  a  flock  of  wild  turkeys  ap- 
proached the  new  log  cabin ;  and  Abraham  with  a  rifle  gun, 
standing  inside,  shot  through  a  crack  and  killed  one  of  them. 
He  has  never  since  pulled  the  trigger  on  any  larger  game." 
This 'exploit  is  confirmed  by  Dennis  Hanks,  who  says:  "No 
doubt  about  A.  Lincoln's  killing  the  turkey.  He  done  it  with 
his  father's  rifle,  made  by  William  Lutes  of  Bullitt  county, 
Kentucky.  I  have  killed  a  hundred  deer  with  her  myself;  tur- 
keys too  numerous  to  mention." 

But  there  were  many  other  country  sports  which  he  en- 
joyed to  the  full.  He  went  swimming  in  the  evenings ;  fished 
with  the  other  boys  in  Pigeon  creek,  wrestled,  jumped,  and 
ran  races  at  the  noon  rests.  He  was  present  at  every  country 
horse-race  and  fox-chase.  The  sports  'he  preferred  were 
those  which  brought  men  together;  the  spelling-school,  the 
husking-bee ;  the  "raising;"  and  of  all  these  he  was  the  life  by 
his  wit,  his  stories,  his  good  nature,  his  doggerel  verses,  his 
practical  jokes,  and  by  a  rough  kind  of  politeness — for  even 
in  Indiana  in  those  times  there  was  a  notion  of  politeness, 
and  one  of  Lincoln's  school-masters  had  given  "lessons  in 
manners."  Lincoln  seems  to  have  profited  in  a  degree  by 
them;  for  Mrs.  Crawford,  at  whose  home  he  worked  for 


26  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

some  time,  declares  that  he  always  "lifted  his  hat  and  bowed" 
when  he  made  his  appearance. 

There  was,  of  course,  a  rough  gallantry  among  the  young 
people;  and  Lincoln's  old  comrades  and  friends  in  Indiana 
have  left  many  tales  of  how  he  "went  to  see  the  girls,"  of  how 
he  brought  in  the  biggest  back-log  and  made  the  brightest 
fire;  of  how  the  young  people,  sitting  around  it,  watch-* 
ing  the  way  the  sparks  flew,  told  their  fortunes.  He  helpedj 
pare  apples,  shell  corn  and  crack  nuts.  He  took  the  girls  to* 
meeting  and  to  spelling-school,  though  he  was  not  often  ak 
lowed  to  take  part  in  the  spelling-match,  for  the  one  who 
"chose  first"  always  chose  "Abe  Lincoln,"  and  that  was 
equivalent  to  winning,  as  the  others  knew  that  "he  would 
stand  up  the  longest." 

The  nearest  approach  to  sentiment  at  this  time,  of  which 
we  know,  is  recorded  in  a  story  Lincoln  once  told  to  an  ac- 
quaintance in  Springfield.  It  was  a  rainy  day,  and  he  was  sit- 
ting with  his  feet  on  the  window-sill,  his  eyes  on  the  street, 
watching  the  rain.  Suddenly  he  looked  up  and  said :  ! 

"Did  you  ever  write  out  a  story  in  your  mind  ?  I  did  when 
I  was  a  little  codger.  One  day  a  wagon  with  a  lady  and  two 
girls  and  a  man  broke  down  near  us,  and  while  they  were 
fixing  up,  they  cooked  in  our  kitchen.  The  woman  had  books 
and  read  us  stories,  and  they  were  the  first  I  had  ever  heard. 
I  took  a  great  fancy  to  one  of  the  girls ;  and  when  they  were 
gone  I  thought  of  her  a  great  deal,  and  one  day  when  I  was 
sitting  out  in  the  sun  by  the  house  I  wrote  out  a  story  in  my 
mind.  I  thought  I  took  my  father's  horse  and  followed  the 
wagon,  and  finally  I  found  it,  and  they  were  surprised  to  see 
me.  I  talked  with  the  girl  and  persuaded  her  to  elope  with 
me ;  and  that  night  I  put  her  on  my  horse,  and  we  started  off 
across  the  prairie.  After  several  hours  we  came  to  a  camp; 
and  when  we  rode  up  we  found  it  was  the  one  we  had  left  a 
few  hours  before,  and  we  went  in.  The  next  night  we  tried 
again,  and  the  same  thing  happened— the  horse  came  back  to 
the  same  place;  and  then  we  concluded  that_we  ought  not  to 


LEAVE  KENTUCKY  FOR  INDIANA  27 

elope.  I  stayed  until  I  had  persuaded  her  father  to  give  her 
to  me.  I  always  meant  to  write  that  story  out  and  publish  it, 
and  I  began  once ;  but  I  concluded  that  it  was  not  much  of  a 
story.  But  I  think  that  was  the  beginning  of  love  with  me." 

His  life  had  its  tragedies  as  well  as  its  touch  of  romance — 
tragedies  so  real  and  profound  that  they  gave  dignity  to  all 
the  crudeness  and  poverty  which  surrounded  him,  and  quick- 
ened and  intensified  the  melancholy  temperament  which  he 
inherited  from  his  mother.  Away  back  in  1816,  when 
Thomas  Lincoln  had  started  to  find  a  farm  in  Indiana,  bid- 
ding his  wife  be  ready  to  go  into  the  wilderness  on  his  re- 
turn, Nancy  Lincoln  had  taken  her  boy  and  girl  to  a  tiny 
grave,  that  of  her  youngest  child;  and  the  three  had  there 
said  good-by  to  a  little  one  whom  the  children  had  scarcely 
known,  but  for  whom  the  mother's  grief  was  so  keen  that  the 
boy  never  forgot  the  scene. 

Two  years  later  he  saw  his  father  make  a  green  pine  box 
and  put  his  dead  mother  into  it,  and  he  saw  her  buried  not 
far  from  their  cabin,  almost  without  prayer.  Young  as  he 
was,  it  was  his  efforts,  it  is  said,  which  brought  a  parson 
from  Kentucky,  three  months  later,  to  preach  the  sermon  and 
conduct  the  service  which  seemed  to  the  child  a  necessary 
honor  to  the  dead.  As  sad  as  the  death  of  his  mother  was 
that  of  his  only  sister,  Sarah.  Married  to  Aaron  Grigsby  in 
1826,  she  had  died  a  year  and  a  half  later  in  child-birth,  a 
death  which  to  her  brother  must  have  seemed  a  horror  and  a 
mystery. 

Apart  from  these  family  sorrows  there  was  all  the  crime 
and  misery  of  the  community — all  of  which  came  to  his  ears 
and  awakened  his  nature.  He  even  saw  in  those  days  one  of 
his  companions  go  suddenly  mad.  The  young  man  never  re- 
covered his  reason  but  sank  into  idiocy.  All  night  he  would 
croon  plaintive  songs,  and  Lincoln  himself  tells  how,  fasci. 
nated  by  this  mysterious  malady,  he  used  to  rise  before  day* 


28  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

light  to  cross  the  fields  to  listen  to  this  funeral  dirge  of  the 
reason.  In  spite  of  the  poverty  and  rudeness  of  his  life  the 
depths  of  his  nature  were  unclouded.  He  could  feel  intensely, 
and  his  imagination  was  quick  to  respond  to  the  touch  of 
mystery 


CHAPTER  HI 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN^    EARLY    OPPORTUNITIES — THE    BOOKS 

HE     READ TRIPS     TO     NEW     ORLEANS IMPRESSION     HE 

MADE   ON    HIS   FRIENDS 

WITH  all  his  hard  living  and  hard  work,  Lincoln  was  get- 
ting, in  this  period,  a  desultory  kind  of  education.  Not  that 
he  received  much  schooling.  He  went  to  school  "  by  littles," 
he  says;  "in  all  it  did  not  amount  to  more  than  a  year."  And, 
if  we  accept  his  own  description  of  the  teachers,  it  was,  per- 
haps, just  as  well  that  it  was  only  "  by  littles."  No  qualifica- 
tion was  required  of  a  teacher  beyond  "  readin',  writin/  and 
cipherin'  to  the  rule  of  three."  If  a  straggler  supposed  to 
know  Latin  happened  to  sojourn  in  the  neighborhood,  he  was 
looked  upon  as  a  "wizard."  But  more  or  less  of  a  school-room 
is  a  matter  of  small  importance  if  a  boy  has  learned  to  read, 
and  to  think  of  what  he  reads.  And  that,  this  boy  had  learned. 
His  stock  of  books  was  small,  but  he  knew  them  thoroughly, 
and  they  were  good  books  to  know;  the  Bible,  "JEsop's  Fa- 
bles," "Robinson  Crusoe,"  Bunyan's  "Pilgnm  Progress,"  a 
"History  of  the  United  States,"  Weems's  "Life  of  Washing- 
ton," and  the  "Statutes  of  Indiana."*  These  are  the  chief 

*The  first  authorized  sketch  of  Lincoln's  life  was  written  by  the  late 
John  L.  Scripps  of  the  Chicago  "  Tribune,"  who  went  to  Springfield  at 
Mr.  Lincoln's  request,  and  by  him  was  furnished  the  data  for  a  campaign 
biography.  In  a  letter  written  to  Mr.  Herndon  after  the  death  of  Lin- 
coln, which  Herndon  turned  over  to  me,  Scripps  relates  that  in  writing 
his  book  he  stated  that  Lincoln  as  a  youth  read  Plutarch's  "  Lives." 
This  he  did  simply  because,  as  a  rule,  every  boy  in  the  West  in  the  early 
days  did  read  Plutarch.  When  the  advance  sheets  of  the  book  reached 
Mr.  Lincoln,  he  sent  for  the  author  and  said,  gravely :  "  That  paragraph 
wherein  you  state  that  I  read  Plutarch's  '  Lives '  was  not  true  when  you 
wrote  it,  for  up  to  that  moment  in  my  life  I  had  never  seen  that  early 
contribution  to  human  history;  but  I  want  your  book,  even  if  it  is 

29 


30  ,          LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

ones  we  know  about.  Some  of  these  books  he  borrowed  from 
the  neighbors ;  a  practice  which  resulted  in  at  least  one  casu- 
alty, for  Weems's  "Life  of  Washington"  he  allowed  to  get 
wet,  and  to  make  good  the  loss  he  had  to  pull  fodder  three 
days.  No  matter.  The  book  became  his  then,  and  he  could 
read  it  as  he  would.  Fortunately  he  took  this  curious  work  in 
profound  seriousness,  which  a  wide-awake  boy  would  hardly 
be  expected  to  do  to-day.  Washington  became  an  exalted 
figure  in  his  imagination;  and  he  always  contended  later, 
when  the  question  of  the  real  character  of  the  first  President 
was  brought  up,  that  it  was  wiser  to  regard  him  as  a  god- 
like being,  heroic  in  nature  and  deeds,  as  Weems  does,  than 
to  contend  that  he  was  only  a  man  who,  if  wise  and  good, 
still  made  mistakes  and  was  guilty  of  follies,  like  other  men. 
Besides  these  books  he  borrowed  many  others.  He  once 
told  a  friend  that  he  "read  through  every  book  he  had  ever 
heard  of  in  that  country,  for  a  circuit  of  fifty  miles."  From 
everything  he  read  he  made  long  extracts,  with  his  turkey- 
buzzard  pen  and  brier-root  ink.  When  he  had  no  paper  he 
would  write  on  a  board,  and  thus  preserve  his  selections  un- 
til he  secured  a  copybook.  The  wooden  fire-shovel  was  his 
usual  slate,  and  on  its  back  he  ciphered  with  a  charred  stick 
shaving  it  off  when  it  had  become  too  grimy  for  use.  The 
logs  and  boards  in  his  vicinity  he  covered  with  his  figures 
and  quotations.  By  night  he  read  and  worked  as  long  as 
there  was  light,  and  he  kept  a  book  in  the  crack  of  the  logs  in 
his  loft,  to  have  it  at  hand  at  peep  of  day.  When  acting  as 
ferryman  on  the  Ohio,  in  his  nineteenth  year,  anxious,  no 
doubt,  to  get  through  the  books  of  the  house  where  he 
boarded,  before  he  left  the  place,  he  read  every  night  until 
midnight. 

nothing  more  than  a  campaign  sketch,  to  be  faithful  to  the  facts;  and 
in  order  that  the  statement  might  be  literally  true,  J  secured  the  book  a 
few  weeks  ago,  and  have  sent  for  you  to  tell  you  that  I  have  just  read 
it  through."— Jesse  W.  Weik. 


§ 


J 


:a 
s 

-O 


FRAGMENT  FROM  A  LEAF  IN  LINCOLN'S  EXERCISE-BOOK. 


32  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

Every  lull  in  his  daily  labor  he  used  for  reading,  rarely 
going  to  his  work  without  a  book.  When  ploughing  or  culti- 
vating the  rough  fields  of  Spencer  county,  he  found  fre- 
quently a  half  hour  for  reading,  for  at  the  end  of  every  long 
row  the  horse  was  allowed  to  rest,  and  Lincoln  had  his  book 
out  and  was  perched  on  stump  or  fence,  almost  as  soon  as  the 
plough  had  come  to  a  standstill.  One  of  <the  few  people  still 
left  in  Gentryville  who  remembers  Lincoln,  Captain  John 
Lamar,  tells  to  this  day  of  riding  to  mill  with  his  father,  and 
seeing,  as  they  drove  along,  a  boy  sitting  on  the  top  rail  of  an 
old-fashioned  stake-and-rider  worm  fence,  reading  so  in- 
tently that  he  did  not  notice  their  approach.  His  father  turn- 
ing to  him,  said :  "John,  look  at  that  boy  yonder,  and  mark 
my  words,  he  will  make  a  smart  man  out  of  himself.  I  may 
not  see  it,  but  you'll  see  if  my  words  don't  come  true."  "That 
boy  was  Abraham  Lincoln,"  adds  Mr.  Lamar  impressively. 

In  his  habits  of  reading  and  study  the  boy  had  little  en- 
couragement from  his  father,  but  his  stepmother  did  all  she 
could  for  him.  Indeed,  between  the  two  there  soon  grew  up  a 
relation  of  touching  gentleness  and  confidence.  In  one  of  the 
interviews  a  biographer  of  Mr.  Lincoln  sought  with  her  be- 
fore her  death,  Mrs.  Lincoln  said : 

"I  induced  my  husband  to  permit  Abe  to  read  and  study  at 
home,  as  well  as  at  school.  At  first  he  was  not  easily  recon- 
ciled to  it,  but  finally  he  too  seemed  willing  to  encourage  him 
to  a  certain  extent.  Abe  was  a  dutiful  son  to  me  always,  and 
we  took  particular  care  when  he  was  reading  not  to  disturb 
him — would  let  him  read  on  and  on  till  he  quit  of  his  own 
accord."  This  consideration  of  his  stepmother  won  the  boy's 
confidence,  and  he  rarely  copied  anything  that  he  did  not  take 
it  to  her  to  read,  asking  her  opinion  of  it ;  and  often,  when 
she  did  not  understand  it,  explaining  the  meaning  in  his  plain 
and  simple  language. 

Among  the  books  which  fell  into  young  Lincoln's  hancj 


MuM 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN'S   INDIANA   HOME. 

After  an  old  photograph  showing  the  cabin  as  it  appeared  in  1869.  Thomas  Lin- 
coln built  this  house  in  1817,  and  moved  into  it  about  a  year  after  he  reached  his  farm. 
At  first  it  had  neither  windows,  doors,  nor  floor;  but  after  the  advent  of  Sally  Bush 
Lincoln  it  was  greatly  improved.  When  he  decided  to  leave  Indiana  he  was  preparing 
the  lumber  for  a  better  house. 


LINCOLN   WORKING   BY   THE   FIRELIGHT. 


EARLY  OPPORTUNITIES  33 

when  he  was  about  eighteen  years  old  was  a  copy  of  tHe 
"Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana."*  We  know  from  Den- 
nis Hanks  and  from  Mr.  Turnham  of  Gentryville,  to 
whom  the  book  belonged,  and  from  other  associates  of 
Lincoln  at  the  time,  that  he  read  the  book  intently  and 
discussed  its  contents  intelligently.  It  was  a  remarkable 
volume  for  a  thoughtful  lad  whose  mind  had  already 
been  fired  by  the  history  of  Washington.  It  opened 
with  that  wonderful  document^  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, following  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  Act  of  Virginia  passed 
in  1783  by  which  the  "Territory  North  Westward  of  the 
river  Ohio"  was  conveyed  to  the  United  States,  and  the  ordi- 
nance of  1787  for  governing  this  territory,  containing  that 
clause  on  which  Lincoln  in  the  future  based  many  an  argu- 
ment on  the  slavery  question.  This  article,  No.  6  of  the  Ordi- 
nance, reads:  "There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involun- 
tary servitude  in  the  said  territory,  otherwise  than  in  the 
punishment  of  crimes,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly 
convicted:  provided  always,  that  any  person  escaping  into 
the  same,  from  whom  labor  or  service  is  lawfully  claimed  in 
any  one  of  the  original  States,  such  fugitive  may  be  lawfully 
reclaimed,  and  conveyed  to  the  person  claiming  his  or  her  la- 
bor or  service,  as  aforesaid." 


*The  book  was  owned  by  Mr.  David  Turnham  of  Gentryville,  and  was 
given  by  him  in  1865  to  Mr.  Herndon,  who  placed  it  in  the  Lincoln 
Memorial  collection  of  Chicago.  In  December,  1894,  this  collection  was 
sold  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  "Statutes  of  Indiana"  was  bought  by  Mr. 
William  Hoffman  Winters,  Librarian  of  the  New  York  Law  Institute, 
where  it  now  may  be  seen.  The  book  is  worn,  the  title  page  is  gone, 
and  a  few  leaves  from  the  end  are  missing.  The  title  page  of  a  duplicate 
volume  reads :  "The  Revised  Laws  of  Indiana,  adopted  and  enacted  by 
the  General  Assembly  at  their  eighth  session.  To  which  are  prefixed  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the 
Constitution  of  the  State  of  Indiana,  and  sundry  other  documents  con- 
nected with  the  Political  History  of  the  Territory  and  State  of  Indiana. 
Arranged  and  published  by  authority  of  the  General  Assembly.  Cory- 
don  :  Printed  by  Carpenter  and  Dox^glass,  1824." 

(3) 


34  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

Following  this  was  the  Constitution  and  the  Revised  Laws 
of  Indiana,  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  pages,  of  five  hun- 
dred words  each,  of  statutes.  When  Lincoln  finished 
this  book,  as  he  had,  probably,  before  he  was  eighteen,  we 
have  reason  to  believe  that  he  understood  the  principles  on 
which  the  nation  was  founded,  how  the  State  of  Indiana 
came  into  being,  and  how  it  was  governed.  His  understand- 
ing of  the  subject  was  clear  and  practical,  and  he  applied  it  in 
his  reading,  thinking,  and  discussion.  After  he  had  read  the 
Statutes  of  Indiana,  Lincoln  had  free  access  to  the  library  of 
an  admirer,  Judge  John  Pitcher  of  Rockport,  Indiana, 
where  he  examined  many  books. 

Although  so  far  away  from  the  center  of  the  world's  activ- 
ity, he  was  learning  something  of  current  history.  One  man 
in  Gentryville,  Mr.  Jones,  the  storekeeper,  took  a  Louisville 
paper,  and  here  Lincoln  went  regularly  to  read  and  discuss 
its  contents.  All  the  men  and  boys  of  the  neighborhood 
gathered  there,  and  everything  which  the  paper  printed  was 
subjected  to  their  keen,  shrewd  common  sense.  It  was  not 
long  before  young  Lincoln  became  the  favorite  member  of 
the  group,  the  one  listened  to  most  respectfully.  Politics  were 
warmly  discussed  by  these  Gentryville  citizens,  and  it  may 
be  that  sitting  on  the  counter  of  Jones's  grocery,  Lincoln  even 
argued  on  slavery.  It  certainly  was  one  of  the  live  questions 
in  Indiana  at  that  date. 

For  several  years  after  the  organization  of  the  Territory, 
and  in  spite  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  a  system  of  thinly  dis- 
guised slavery  had  existed;  and  it  took  a  sharp  struggle  to 
bring  the  State  in  without  some  form  of  the  institution.  So 
uncertain  was  the  result  that,  when  decided,  the  word  passed 
from  mouth  to  mouth  all  over  Hoosierdom,  "She  has  come  in 
free,  she  has  come  in  free!"  Even  in  1820,  four  years  after 
the  admission  to  Statehood,  the  census  showed  one  hundred 
and  ninety  slaves,  nearly  all  of  them  in  the  southwest  corner. 


EARLY  OPPORTUNITIES  35 

where  the  Lincolns  lived,  and  it  was  not,  in  reality,  until  1821 
that  the  State  Supreme  Court  put  an  end  to  the  question.  In 
Illinois  in  1822-1824  there  was  carried  on  one  of  the  most 
violent  contests  between  the  friends  and  opponents  of  slavery 
which  occurred  before  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise. The  effort  to  secure  slave  labor  was  nearly  successful. 
In  the  campaign,  pamphlets  pro  and  con  literally  inundated 
the  State;  the  pulpits  took  it  up;  and  "almost  every  stump  in 
every  county  had  its  bellowing,  indignant  orator."  So  violent 
a  commotion  so  near  at  hand  could  hardly  have  failed 
to  reach  Gentryville. 

There  had  been  other  anti-slavery  agitation  going  on 
within  hearing  for  several  years.  In  1804  a  number  of  Baptist 
ministers  of  Kentucky  started  a  crusade  against  the  institu- 
tion, which  resulted  in  a  hot  contest  in  the  denomination,  and 
the  organization  of  the  "Baptist  Licking-Locust  Association 
Friends  of  Humanity."  The  Rev.  Jesse  Head,  the  minister 
who  married  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks,  talked 
freely  and  boldly  against  slavery;  and  one  of  their  old 
friends,  Christopher  Columbus  Graham,  the  man  who  was 
present  at  their  wedding,  says :  "Tom  and  Nancy  Lincoln  and 
Sally  Bush  were  just  steeped  full  of  Jesse  Head's  notions 
about  the  wrong  of  slavery  and  the  rights  of  man  -as  ex- 
plained by  Thomas  Jefferson  and  Thomas  Paine."  In  1806 
Charles  Osborne  began  to  preach  "immediate  emancipation" 
in  Tennessee.  Ten  years  later  he  started  a  paper  in  Ohio, 
devoted  to  the  same  idea,  and  in  1819  he  transferred  his  cru- 
sade to  Indiana.  In  1821  Benjamin  Lundy  started,  in  Ten- 
nessee, the  famous  "Genius,"  devoted  to  the  same  doctrine; 
and  in  1822,  at  Shelbyville,  only  about  one  hundred  miles 
from  Gentryville,  was  started  a  paper  similar  in  its  views, 
the  "Abolition  Intelligencer." 

At  that  time  there  were  in  Kentucky  five  or  six  afolition 
societies,  and  in  Illinois  was  an  organization  called  the 


36  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

"Friends  of  Humanity."  Probably  young  Lincoln  heard  but 
vaguely  of  these  movements;  but  of  some  of  them  he  must 
nave  heard,  and  he  must  have  connected  them  with  the 
"Speech  of  Mr.  Pitt  on  the  Slave  Trade;"  with  Merry's 
elegy,  "The  Slaves,"  and  with  the  discussion  given  in  his 
"Kentucky  Preceptor,"  "Which  has  the  Most  to  Complain, 
of,  the  Indian  or  the  Negro?"  all  of  which  tradition  declares 
he  was  fond  of  repeating.  It  is  not  impossible  that,  as  Freder- 
ick Douglas  first  realized  his  own  condition  in  reading  a 
school-speaker,  the  "Columbian  Orator,"  so  Abraham  Lin- 
coln first  felt  the  wrong  of  slavery  in  reading  his  "  Ken- 
tucky "  or  "American  Preceptor." 

Lincoln  was  not  only  winning  in  these  days  in  the  Jones 
grocery  store  a  reputation  as  a  talker  and  a  story-teller;  he 
was  becoming  known  as  a  kind  of  backwoods  orator.  He 
could  repeat  with  effect  all  the  poems  and  speeches  in  his  vari- 
ous sdiool  readers,  he  could  imitate  to  perfection  the  wander- 
ing preachers  who  came  to  Gentryville,  and  he  could  make  a 
political  speech  so  stirring  that  he  drew  a  crowd  about  him 
every  time  he  mounted  a  stump.  The  applause  he  won  was 
sweet;  and  frequently  he  indulged  his  gifts  when  he  ought 
to  have  been  working — so  thought  his  employers  and 
Thomas,  his  father.  It  was  trying,  no  doubt,  to  the  hard- 
pushed  farmers,  to  see  the  men  who  ought  to  have  been  cut- 
ting grass  or  chopping  wood  throw  down  their  scythes  or 
axes  and  group  around  a  boy,  whenever  he  mounted  a  stump 
to  develop  a  pet  theory  or  repeat  with  variations  yesterday's 
sermon.  In  his  fondness  for  speech-making  young  Lincoln 
attended  all  the  trials  of  the  neighborhood,  and  frequently 
walked  fifteen  miles  to  Boonville  to  attend  court. 

He  wrote  as  well  as  spoke,  and  some  of  his  productions 
were  printed,  through  the  influence  of  his  admiring  neigh- 
bors. Thus  a  local  Baptist  preacher  was  so  struck  with  one 
of  Abraham's  essays  on  temperance  that  he  sent  it  to  Ohio, 


EARLY  OPPORTUNITIES  37 

where  it  is  said  to  have  appeared  in  a  newspaper.  Another 
article  on  "National  Politics,"  so  pleased  a  lawyer  of  the 
vicinity  that  he  declared  the  "world  couldn't  beat  it." 

In  considering  the  different  opportunities  for  development 
which  the  boy  had  at  this  time  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
he  spent  many  months  at  one  time  or  another  on  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  rivers.  In  fact,  all  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
saw  of  men  and  the  world  outside  of  Gentryville  and  its 
neighborhood,  until  after  he  was  twenty-one  years  of  age  he 
saw  on  these  rivers.  For  many  years  the  Ohio  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi were  the  Appian  Way,  the  one  route  to  the  world  for 
the  western  settlers.  To  preserve  it  they  had  been  willing 
in  early  times  to  go  to  war  with  Spain  or  with  France,  to  se- 
cede from  the  Union,  even  to  join  Spain  or  France  against 
the  United  States  if  either  country  would  insure  their  right  to 
the  highway.  In  the  long  years  in  which  the  ownership  of 
the  great  river  was  unsettled," every  man  of  them  had  come  to 
feel  with  Benjamin  Franklin,  "a  neighbor  might  as  well  ask 
me  to  sell  my  street  door."  In  fact,  this  water-way  was  their 
"street  door,"  and  all  that  niany~of  them  ever  saw  of  the 
world*  passed  here.  Up  and  down  the  rivers  was  a  con- 
tinual movement.  Odd  craft  of  every  kind  possible  on  a 
river  went  by:  "arks"  and  "sleds,"  with  tidy  cabins 
where  families  lived,  and  where  one  could  see  the  washing 
stretched,  the  children  playing,  the  mother  on  pleasant  days 
rocking  and  sewing;  keel-boats,  which  dodged  in  and  out 
and  turned  inquisitive  noses  up  all  the  creeks  and  bayous; 
great  fleets  from  the  Alleghanies,  made  up  of  a  score  or  more 
of  timber  rafts,  and  manned  by  forty  or  fifty  rough  boatmen ; 
"Orleans  boats,"  loaded  with  flour,  hogs,  produce  of  all 
kinds;  pirogues,  made  from  great  trees;  "broad-horns;" 
curious  nondescripts  worked  by  a  wheel;  and,  after  1812, 
steamboats. 

All  this  traffic  was  leisurely.     Men  had  time  to  tie  up  and 


38  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

tell  the  news  and  ehow  their  wares.  Even  the  steamboats 
loitered  as  it  pleased  them.  They  knew  no  schedule.  They 
stopped  anywhere  to  let  passengers  off.  They  tied  up 
wherever  it  was  convenient,  to  wait  for  fresh  wood  to  be  cut 
and  loaded,  or  for  repairs  to  be  made.  Waiting  for  repairs, 
seems,  in  fact,  to  have  absorbed  a  great  deal  of  the  time  of 
these  early  steamers.  They  were  continually  running  onto 
"sawyers,"  or  "planters,"  or  "wooden  islands,"  and  they 
blew  up  with  a  regularity  which  was  monotonous.  Even 
as  late  as  1842,  when  Charles  Dickens  made  the  trip  down 
the  Mississippi,  he  was  often  gravely  recommended  to  keep 
as  far  aft  as  possible,  "because  the  steamboats  generally  blew 
up  forward." 

With  this  varied  river  life  Abraham  Lincoln  first  came 
into  contact  as  a  ferryman  and  boatman,  when  in  1826  he 
spent  several  months  as  a  ferryman  at  the  mouth  of  Ander- 
son creek,  where  it  joins  the  Ohio.  This  experience  sug- 
gested new  possibilities  to  him.  It  was  a  custom  among  the 
farmers  of  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois  at  this  date  to  collect  a 
quantity  of  produce,  and  float  down  to  New  Orleans  on  a 
raft,  to  sell  it.  Young  Lincoln  saw  this,  and  wanted  to  try 
his  fortune  as  a  produce  merchant.  An  incident  of  his  pro- 
jected trip  he  related  once  to  Mr.  Seward : 

"Seward,"  he  said,  "did  you  ever  hear  how  I  earned  my 
first  dollar?" 

"No,"  said  Mr.  Seward. 

"Well,"  replied  he,  "I  was  about  eighteen  years  of  age, 
and  belonged,  as  you  know,  to  what  they  call  down  south  the 
'scrubs  \'  people  who  do  not  own  land  and  slaves  are  no- 
body there ;  but  we  had  succeeded  in  raising,  chiefly  by  my 
labor,  sufficient  produce,  as  I  thought,  to  justify  me  in  taking 
it  down  the  river  to  sell.  After  much  persuasion  I  had  got 
the  consent  of  my  mother  to  go,  and  had  constructed  a  flat- 
boat  large  enough  to  take  the  few  barrels  of  things  we  had 
gathered  to  New  Orleans.  A  steamer  was  going  down  the 


EARLY  OPPORTUNITIES  39 

river.  We  have,  you  know,  no  wharves  on  the  western 
streams,  and  the  custom  was,  if  passengers  were  at  any  of 
the  landings  they  were  to  go  out  in  a  boat,  the  steamer  stop- 
ping, and  taking  them  on  board.  I  was  contemplating  my 
new  boat,  and  wondering  whether  I  could  make  it  stronger 
or  improve  it  in  any  part,  when  two  men  with  trunks  came 
down  to  the  shore  in  carriages,  and  looking  at  the  different 
boats,  singled  out  mine,  and  asked,  *  Who  owns  this  ?  '  I 
answered  modestly,  *I  do.'  'Will  you/  said  one  of  them, 
'take  us  and  our  trunks  out  to  the  steamer? '  'Certainly,1 
said  I.  I  was  very  glad  to  have  the  chance  of  earning  some- 
thing, and  supposed  that  each  of  them  would  give  me  a 
couple  of  bits.  The  trunks  were  put  in  my  boat,  the  pas- 
sengers seated  themselves  on  them,  and  I  sculled  them  out 
to  the  steamer.  They  got  on  board,  and  I  lifted  the  trunks 
and  put  them  on  the  deck.  The  steamer  was  about  to  put 
on  steam  again,  when  I  called  out,  'You  have  forgotten  to 
pay  me/  Each  of  them  took  from  his  pocket  a  silver  half- 
dollar  and  threw  it  on  the  bottom  of  my  boat.  I  could 
scarcely  believe  my  eyes  as  I  picked  up  the  money.  You 
may  think  it  was  a  very  little  thing,  and  in  these  days  it  seems 
to  me  like  a  trifle,  but  it  was  a  most  important  incident  in 
my  life.  I  could  scarcely  credit  that  I,  the  poor  boy,  had 
earned  a  dollar  in  less  than  a  day;  that  by  honest  work  I 
had  earned  a  dollar.  I  was  ft  more  hopeful  and  thoughtful 
boy  from  that  time." 

Soon  after  this,  while  he  was  working  for  Mr.  Gentry, 
the  leading  citizen  of  Gentryville,  his  employer  decided  to 
send  a  load  of  produce  to  New  Orleans,  and  chose  young 
Lincoln  to  go  as  "bow-hand,"  "to  work  the  front  oars." 
For  this  trip  he  received  eight  dollars  a  month  and  his  pas- 
sage back.  Who  can  believe  that  he  could  see  and  be  part 
of  this  river  life  without  learning  much  of  the  ways  and 
thoughts  of  the  world  beyond  him  ?  Every  time  a  steamboat 
or  a  raft  tied  up  near  Anderson  creek  and  he  with  his  com- 
panions boarded  it  and  saw  its  mysteries  and  talked  with  its 
crew,  every  time  he  rowed  out  with  passengers  to  a  passing 


40  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

steamer,  who  can  doubt  that  he  came  back  with  new  ideas 
and  fresh  energy?  The  trips  to  New  Orleans  were,  to  a 
thoughtful  boy,  an  education  of  no  mean  value.  It  was  the 
most  cosmopolitan  and  brilliant  city  of  the  United  States  at 
that  date,  and  there  young  Lincoln  saw  life  at  its  intensest. 

Such  was  Abraham  Lincoln's  life  in  Indiana;  such  were 
the  avenues  open  to  him  for  study  and  for  seeing  the  world. 
In  spite  of  the  crudeness  of  it  all;  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
he  had  no  wise  direction,  that  he  was  brought  up  by  a  father 
with  no  settled  purpose,  and  that  he  lived  in  a  pioneer  com- 
munity, where  a  young  man's  life  at  best  is  but  a  series  of 
makeshifts,  Lincoln  soon  developed  a  determination  to  make 
something  out  of  himself,  and  a  desire  to  know,  which  led 
him  to  neglect  no  opportunity  to  learn. 

The  only  unbroken  outside  influence  which  directed  and 
stimulated  him  in  these  ambitions  was  that  coming  first  from 
his  mother,  then  from  his  stepmother.  These  two  women, 
both  of  them  of  unusual  earnestness  and  sweetness  of  spirit, 
were  one  or  the  other  of  them  at  his  side  throughout  his 
youth  and  young  manhood.  The  ideal  they  held  before  him 
was  the  simple  ideal  of  the  early  American,  that  if  a  boy  is 
upright  and  industrious  he  may  aspire  to  any  place  within 
the  gift  of  the  country.  The  boy's  instinct  told  him  they 
were  right.  Everything  he  read  confirmed  their  teachings, 
and  he  cultivated,  in  every  way  open  to  him,  his  passion  to 
know  and  to  be  something.  His  zeal  in  study,  his  ambition 
to  excel  made  their  impression  on  his  acquaintances.  Even 
then  they  pointed  him  out  as  a  boy  who  would  "make  some- 
thing" of  himself.  In  1865,  thirty-five  years  after  he  left 
Gentryville,  Wm.  H.  Herndon,  for  many  years  a  law  part- 
ner of  Lincoln,  anxious  to  save  all  that  was  known  of  Lin- 
coln in  Indiana,  went  among  his  old  associates,  and  with  a 
sincerity  and  thoroughness  worthy  of  grateful  respect,  inter- 
viewed them.  At  that  time  there  were  still  living  numbers 


EARLY  OPPORTUNITIES  4! 

of  the  people  with  whom  Lincoln  had  been  brought  up. 
They  all  remembered  something  of  him.  It  is  curious  to 
note  that  all  of  these  people  tell  of  his  doing  something  dif- 
ferent from  what  other  boys  did,  something  sufficiently  su- 
perior to  have  made  a  keen  impression  upon  them.  In  almost 
every  case  each  person  had  his  own  special  reason  for  ad- 
miring Lincoln.  A  facility  in  making  rhymes  and  writing 
;  essays  was  the  admiration  of  many,  who  considered  it  the 
more  remarkable  because  "essays  and  poetry  were  not  taught 
in  school,"  and  "Abe  took  it  up  on  his  own  account." 

Many  others  were  struck  by  the  clever  application  he  made 
of  this  gift  for  expression.  At  one  period  he  was  employed 
as  a  "hand"  by  a  farmer  who  treated  him  unfairly.  Lincoln 
took  a  revenge  unheard  of  in  Gentryville.  He  wrote  dog- 
gerel rhymes  about  his  employer's  nose — a  long  and  crooked 
feature  about  which  the  owner  was  very  sensitive.  The  wit 
he  showed  in  taking  revenge  for  a  social  slight  by  a  satire 
on  the  Grigsbys,  who  had  failed  to  invite  him  to  a  wedding, 
made  a  lasting  impression  in  Gentryville.  That  he  should 
write  so  well  as  to  be  able  to  humiliate  his  enemies  more 
deeply  than  if  he  had  resorted  to  the  method  of  taking  re- 
venge current  in  the  country,  and  thrashed  them,  seemed  to 
his  friends  a  mark  of  surprising  superiority. 

His  schoolmates  all  remembered  his  spelling.  He  stood 
at  the  head  of  his  class  invariably  and  at  the  spelling-matches 
in  which  the  young  people  of  the  neighborhood  passed  many 
an  evening  the  one  who  first  began  "choosing  sides"  always 
chose  "Abe  Lincoln."  So  often  did  he  spell  the  school  down 
that  finally,  tradition  says,  he  was  no  longer  allowed  to  take 
part  in  the  matches. 

Very  many  of  his  old  neighbors  recalled  his  reading  habits 
and  how  well  stored  his  mind  was  with  information.  His 
explanations  of  natural  phenomena  were  so  unfamiliar  to 
his  companions  that  he  sometimes  was  jeered  at  for  them, 


42  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

though'  as  a  rule  his  listeners  were  sympathetic,  taking-  a 
certain  pride  in  the  fact  that  one  of  their  number  knew  as 
much  as  Lincoln  did.  "He  was  better  read  than  the  world 
knows  or  is  likely  to  know  exactly/'  said  one  old  acquaint- 
ance. "He  often  and  often  commented  or  talked  to  me  about 
what  he  had  read  —  seemed  to  read  it  out  of  the  book  as  he 
went  along  —  did  so  with  others.  He  was  the  learned  boy 
among  us  unlearned  folks.  He  took  great  pains  to  explain; 
could  do  it  so  simply.  He  was  diffident,  then,  too." 

One  man  was  impressed  by  the  character  of  the  sentences 
Lincoln  had  given  him  for  a  copybook.  "It  was  considered  at 

Q&&a&&^^ 


FACSIMILE  OP  LINES  FROM  LINCOLN'S  COPY  BOOK. 

that  time,"  said  he,  "that  Abe  was  the  best  penman  in  the 
neighborhood.  One  day,  while  he  was  on  a  visit  ait  my 
motfieVs,  Tasked  him  to  write  some  copies  for  me.  He  very 
willingly  consented.  He  wrote  several  of  them,  but  one  of 
them  I  have  never  forgotten,  although  a  boy  at  that  time.  It 
was  this  : 

"  *  Good  boys  who  to  their  books  apply 
Will  all  be  great  men  by  and  by.'  " 

His  wonderful  memory  was  recalled  by  many.  To  save 
that  which  he  found  to  his  liking  in  the  books  he  borrowed 
Lincoln  committed  much  to  memory.  He  knew  many  long 
poems,  and  most  of  the  selections  in  the  "Kentucky  Precep- 


THE    OLD   SWIMMING  HOLE. 


A  secluded  part  of  Little  Pigeon  Creek,  not  far  from  Gentryville,  where  Lincoln 
Dennis  Hanks,  John  Johnston,  the  Gentry  boys,  and  others  of  the  neighborhood, 
used  to  bathe.  It  is  still  pointed  out  as  "the  place  where  Abe  went  in  swimming." 


BUCKTHORN  VALLEY,    WHERE  LINCOLN  WORKED  AND   HUNTED. 

In  this  valley  are  located  nearly  all  the  farms  on  which  Lincoln  worked  in  his 
boyhood,  including  the  famous  Crawford  place,  where  he  and  his  sister  Sarah  wer» 
both  employed  as  "help."  Visitors  to  the  locality  have  pointed  out  to  them  num- 
berless items  associated  with  his  early  life — fields  he  helped  to  clear  and  till,  fences 
he  built,  houses  he  repaired,  wells  he  dug,  paths  he  walked,  playgrounds  he  fre- 
quented. Indeed,  the  inhabitants  of  Buckthorn  Valley  take  the  greatest  pride,  and 
very  properly,  in  Lincloln's  connection  with  it. 


EARLY  OPPORTUNITIES  43 

tor."    By  the  time  he  was  twenty-one,  in  fact,  his  mind  was 
well  stored  with  verse  and  prose. 

All  of  his  comrades  remembered  his  stories  and  his  clear- 
ness in  argument.  "  When  he  appeared  in  company,"  says 
Nat  Grigsby,  "the  boys  would  gather  and  cluster  around  him 
to  hear  him  talk.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  figurative  in  his  speech, 
talks,  and  conversation.  He  argued  much  from  analogy, 
and  explained  things  hard  for  us  to  understand  by  stories, 
maxims,  tales,  and  figures.  He  would  almost  always  point 
his  lesson  or  idea  by  some  story  that  was  plain  and  near  us, 
that  we  might  instantly  see  the  force  and  bearing  of  what  he 
said."  This  ability  to  explain  clearly  and  to  illustrate  by 
simple  figures  of  speech  must  be  counted  as  the  great  mental 
acquirement  of  Lincoln's  boyhood.  It  was  a  power  which  he 
gained  by  hard  labor.  .Years  later  he  related  his  experience 
to  an  acquaintance  who  had  been  surprised  by  the  lucidity 
and  simplicity  of  his  speeches  and  who  had  asked  where 
he  was  educated. 

"I  never  went  to  school  more  than  six  months  in 
my  life,1**  he  said,  "but  I  can  say  this:  that  among  my 
earliest  recollections  I  remember,  how,  when  a  mere  child, 
I  used  to  get  irritated  when  anybody  talked  to  me  in  a  way  I 
could  not  understand.  I  do  not  think  I  ever  got  angry  at 
anything  else  in  my  life;  but  that  always  disturbed  my  tem- 
per, and  has  ever  since.  I  can  remember  going  to  my  little 
bedroom,  after  hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of  an  evening  with 
my  father,  and  spending  no  small  part  of  the  night  walking 
up  and  down  and  trying  to  make  out  what  was  the  exact 
meaning  of  some  of  their,  to  me,  dark  sayings. 

"I  could  not  sleep,  although  I  tried  to,  when  I  got  on  such 
a  hunt  for  an  idea  until  I  had  caught  it ;  and  when  I  thought 
I  had  got  it,  I  was  not  satisfied  until  I  had  repeated  it  over 
and  over;  until  I  had  put  it  in  language  plain  enough,  as  I 
thought,  for  any  boy  I  knew  to  comprehend.  This  was  a 
kind  of  passion  with  me,  and  it  has  stuck  by  me;  for  I  am 
never  easy  now,  when  I  am  handlingj^thought,  till  I  have 


44  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

bounded  it  north  and  bounded  it  south,  and  bounded  it  east 
and  bounded  it  west." 

Mr.  Herndon  in  his  interviewing  in  Indiana  found  that 
everywhere  Lincoln  was  remembered  as  kind  and  helpful. 
.  The  'man  or  woman  in  trouble  never  failed  to  receive  all  the 
aid  he  could  give  him.  Even  a  worthless  drunkard  of  the 
village  called  him  friend,  as  well  he  might,  Lincoln  having 
gathered  him  up  one  night  from  the  roadside  where  he  lay 
freezing  and  carried  him  on  his  back  a  long  distance  to  a 
shelter  and  a  fire.  The  thoughtless  cruelty  to  animals  so 
common  among  country  children  revolted  the  boy.  He 
wrote  essays  on  "cruelty  to  animals,"  harangued  his  play- 
mates, protested  whenever  he  saw  any  wanton  abuse  of  a 
dumb  creature.  This  gentleness  made  a  lasting  impression 
on  his  mates,  coupled  as  it  was  with  the  physical  strength 
and  courage  to  enforce  his  doctrines.  Stories  of  his  good 
heart  and  helpful  life  might  be  multiplied  but  they  are 
summed  up  in  what  his  stepmother  said  of  the  boy: 

"Abe  was  a  good  boy,  and  I  can  say  what  scarcely  one 
woman — a  mother — can  say  in  a  thousand :  Abe  never  gave 
me  a  cross  word  or  look,  and  never  refused,  in  fact  or  ap- 
pearance, to  do  anything  I  requested  him.  I  never  gave  him 
a  cross  word  in  all  my  life.  .  .  .  His  mind  and  mine — 
what  little  I  had — seemed  to  run  together.  He  was  here 
after  he  was  elected  president.  He  was  a  dutiful  son  to  me 
always.  I  think  he  loved  me  truly.  I  had  a  son,  John,  who 
was  raised  with  Abe.  Both  were  good  boys ;  but  I  must  say, 
both  now  being  dead,  that  Abe  was  the  best  boy  I  ever  saw, 
or  expect  to  see." 


CHAPTER  IV: 

THE  LINCOLNS  LEAVE  INDIANA — THE  JOURNEY  TO  ILLINOIS 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  STARTS  OUT  FOR  HIMSELF 

IN  THE_  spring  of  1830  when  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
twenty-one  years  old,  his  father,  Thomas  Lincoln,  decided  to 
leave  Indiana.  The  reason  Dennis  Hanks  gives  for  this  re- 
moval was  a  disease  called  the  "milk-sick."  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's mother,  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln,  and  several  of  their 
relatives  who  had  followed  them  from  Kentucky  had  died  of 
it.  The  cattle  had  been  carried  off  by  it.  Neither  brute  nor 
human  life  seemed  to  be  safe.  As  Dennis  Hanks  says: 
"This  was  reason  enough  (ain't  it)  for  leaving?"  Any  one 
who  has  traveled  through  the  portions  of  Spencer  County  in 
which  the  Lincolns  settled  will  respect  Thomas  Lincoln  for 
his  energy  in  moving.  When  covered  with  timber,  as  the 
land  was  when  he  chose  his  farm,  it  no  doubt  promised  well ; 
but  fourteen  years  of  hard  labor  showed  him  that  the  soil 
was  niggardly  and  the  future  of  the  country  unpromising. 
To-day,  sixty-five  years  since  the  Lincolns  left  Spencer 
County,  the  country  remains  as  it  was  then,  dull,  common- 
place, unfruitful.  The  towns  show  no  signs  of  energy  or 
prosperity.  There  are  no  leading  streets  or  buildings;  no 
man's  house  is  better  than  his  neighbor's,  and  every  man's 
house  is  ordinary.  For  a  long  distance  on  each  side  of  Gen- 
tryville  as  one  passes  by  rail,  no  superior  farm  is  to  be  seen, 
no  prosperous  farm  or  manufactory.  It  is  a  dead  monotonous 
country,  where  no  possibilities  of  quick  wealth  have  been  dis- 
covered, and  which  only  centuries  of  tilling  and  fertilizing 
can  make  prosperous. 

45 


46  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

The  place  chosen  for  their  new  home  was  the  Sangamon 
country  in  central  Illinois.  It  was  at  that  day  a  country  of 
great  renown  in  the  West,  the  name  meaning  "The  land 
where  there  is  plenty  to  eat/*  One  of  the  family — John 
Hanks,  a  cousin  of  Abraham's  mother — was  already  there, 
and  the  inviting  reports  he  had  sent  to  Indiana  were  no  doubt 
what  led  the  Lincolns  to  decide  on  Illinois  as  their  future 
home.  Gentryville  saw  young  Lincoln  depart  with  genuine 
regret,  and  his  friends  gave  him  a  score  of  rude  proofs  that 
he  would  not  be  forgotten.  After  he  was  gone,  one  of  these 
friends  planted  a  cedar  tree  in  his  memory.  It  still  marks  the 
site  of  the  Lincoln  home — the  first  monument  erected  to  the 
memory  of  a  man  to  whom  the  world  will  never  cease  to  raise 
monuments. 

The  spot  on  the  hill  overlooking  Buckthorne  valley,  where 
the  Lincolns  said  good-by  to  their  old  home  and  to  the  home 
of  Sarah  Lincoln  Grigsby,  to  the  grave  of  the  mother  and 
wife,  to  all  their  neighbors  and  friends,  is  still  pointed  out. 
Buckthorne  valley  held  many  recollections  dear  to  them  all, 
but  to  no  one  of  the  company  was  the  place  dearer  than  to 
Abraham.  It  is  certain  that  he  felt  the  parting  keenly,  and 
that  he  never  forgot  his  years  in  the  Hoosier  State.  One  of 
the  most  touching  experiences  he  relates  in  all  his  published 
letters  is  his  emotion  at  visiting  his  old  Indiana  home  four- 
teen years  after  he  had  left  it.  So  strongly  was  he  moved  by 
the  scenes  of  his  first  conscious  sorrows,  efforts,  joys,  am- 
bitions, that  he  put  into  verse  the  feelings  they  awakened. 

While  he  never  attempted  to  conceal  the  poverty  and  hard- 
ship of  these  days,  and  would  speak  humorously  of  the 
"pretty  pinching  times"  he  experienced,  he  never  regarded 
his  life  at  this  time  as  mean  or  pitiable.  Frequently  he  talked 
to  his  friends  in  later  days  of  his  boyhood,  and  always  with 
apparent  pleasure.  "Mr.  Lincoln  told  this  story  (of  his 
youth),"  says  Leonard  Swett,  "as  the  story  of  a  happy  child- 


STARTS  OUT  FOR  HIMSELF  47 

hood.  There  was  nothing  sad  or  pinched,  and  nothing  of 
want,  and  no  allusion  to  want  in  any  part  of  it.  His  own  de- 
scription of  his  youth  was  that  of  a  happy,  joyous  boyhood. 
It  was  told  with  mirth  and  glee,  and  illustrated  by  pointed 
anecdotes,  often  interrupted  by  his  jocund  laugh." 

And  he  was  right.  There  was  nothing  ignoble  or  mean  in 
this  Indiana  pioneer  life.  It  was  rude,  but  only  with  the 
\  rudeness  which  the  ambitious  are  willing  to  endure  in  order 
to  push  on  to  a  better  condition  than  they  otherwise  could 
know.  These  people  did  not  accept  their  hardships  apatheti- 
cally.  They  did  not  regard  them  as  permanent.  They  were 
only  the  temporary  deprivations  necessary  in  order  to  accom- 
plish what  they  had  come  into  the  country  to  do.  For  this 
reason  they  endured  hopefully  all  that  was  hard.  It  is  worth 
notice,  too,  that  there  was  nothing  belittling  in  their  life ;  there 
was  no  pauperism,  no  shirking.  Each  family  provided  for 
its  own  simple  wants,  and  had  the  conscious  dignity  which 
comes  from  being  equal  to  a  situation.  If  their  lives  lacked 
culture  and  refinement,  they  were  rich  in  independence  and 
self-reliance. 

The  company  which  emigrated  to  Illinois  included  the 
family  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  those  of  Dennis  Hanks  and 
Levi  Hall,  married  to  Lincoln's  stepsisters — thirteen  per- 
sons in  all.  They  sold  land,  cattle  and  grain,  and  much  of 
their  household  goods,  and  were  ready  in  March  of  1830  for 
their  journey.  All  the  possessions  which  the  three  families 
had  to  take  with  them  were  packed  into  big  wagons — 
to  which  oxen  were  attached,  and  the  caravan  was  ready. 
The  weather  was  still  cold,  the  streams  were  swollen,  and  the 
roads  were  muddy;  but  the  party  started  out  bravely.  In- 
ured to  hardships,  alive  to  all  the  new  sights  on  their  route, 
every  day  brought  them  amusement  and  adventures,  and  es- 
pecially to  young  Lincoln  the  journey  must  have  been  of  keen 
interest 


48  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

He  drove  one  of  the  teams,  he  tells  us,  and,  accor3- 
ing  to  a  story  current  in  Gentryville,  he  succeeded  in  doing  a 
fair  peddler's  business  on  the  route.  Captain  William  Jones, 
in  whose  father's  store  Lincoln  had  spent  so  many  hours  in 
discussion  and  in  story-telling,  and  for  whom  he  had  worked 
the  last  winter  he  was  in  Indiana,  says  that  before  leaving 
the  State  Abraham  invested  all  his  money,  some  thirty-odd 
dollars,  in  notions.  Though  all  the  country  through  which 
they  expected  to  pass  was  but  sparsely  settled,  he  believed  he 
could  dispose  of  them.  "A  set  of  knives  and  forks  was  the 
largest  item  entered  on  the  bill,"  says  Captain  Jones;  "the 
other  items  were  needles,  pins,  thread,  buttons,  and  other 
little  domestic  necessities.  When  the  Lincolns  reached  their 
new  home  near  Decatur,  Illinois,  Abraham  wrote  back  to  my 
father,  stating  that  he  had  doubled  his  money  on  his  purchases 
by  selling  them  along  the  road.  Unfortunately  we  did  not 
keep  that  letter,  not  thinking  how  highly  we  would  have 
prized  it  in  years  afterwards." 

The  pioneers  were  a  fortnight  OR  their  journey.  All  we 
know  of  the  route  they  took  is  from  a  few  chance  remarks  of 
Lincoln's  to  his  friends  to  the  effect  that  they  passed  through 
Vincennes,  where  he  saw  a  printing-press  for  the  first  time, 
and  through  Palestine,  where  he  saw  a  juggler  performing 
sleight-of-hand  tricks.  They  reached  Macon  County,  their 
new  home,  from  the  south.  Mr.  H.  C.  Whitney  says  that 
once  in  Decatur,  when  he  and  Lincoln  were  passing  the  court- 
house together,  "Lincoln  walked  out  a  few  feet  in  front, 
and,  after  shifting  his  position  two  or  three  times,  said,  as  he 
looked  up  at  the  building,  partly  to  himself  and  partly  to  me : 
'Here  is  the  exact  spot  where  I  stood  by  our  wagon  when 
we  moved  from  Indiana,  twenty-six  years  ago ;  this  isn't  six 
feet  from  the  exact  spot/  ...  He  then  told  me  he  had 
frequently  thereafter  tried  to  locate  the  route  by  which  they 


STARTS  OUT  FOR  HIMSELF  49 

had  come,  and  that  he  had  decided  that  it  was  near  the  main 
line  of  the  Illinois  Central  railroad." 

The  party  settled  some  ten  miles  west  of  Decatur,  in  Ma- 
con  County.  Here  John  Hanks  had  the  logs  already  cut  for 
their  new  home,  and  Lincoln,  Dennis  Hanks,  and  Hall  soon 
had  a  cabin  erected.  Mr.  Lincoln  says  in  his  short  autobi- 
ography of  1860:  "Here  they  built  a  log  cabin,  into  which 
they  removed,  and  made  sufficient  of  rails  to  fence  ten  acres 
of  ground,  fenced  and  broke  the  ground,  and  raised  a  crop  of 
sown  corn  upon  it  the  same  year.  These  are,  or  are  supposed 
to  be,  the  rails  about  which  so  much  is  being  said  just  now, 
though  these  are  far  from  being  the  first  or  only  rails  ever 
made  by  Abraham."  If  they  were  far  from  being  his  "first 
and  only  rails,"  they  certainly  were  the  most  famous  ones  he 
or  anybody  else  ever  split. 

This  was  the  last  work  Lincoln  did  for  his  father,  for  in 
the  summer  of  that  year  (1830)  he  exercised  the  right  of 
majority  and  started  out  to  shift  for  himself.  When  he  left 
his  home,  he  went  empty-handed.  He  was  already  some 
months  over  twenty-one  years  of  age,  but  he  had  nothing  in 
the  world,  not  even  a  suit  of  respectable  clothes ;  and  one  of 
the  first  pieces  of  work  he  did  was  "to  split  four  hundred  rails 
for  every  yard  of  brown  jeans  dyed  with  white- walnut  bark 
that  would  be  necessary  to  make  him  a  pair  of  trousers."  He 
had  no  trade,  no  profession,  no  spot  of  land,  no  patron,  no 
influence.  Two  things  recommended  him  to  his  neighbors- 
he  was  strong,  and  he  was  a  good  fellow. 

His  strength  made  him  a  valuable  laborer.  Not  that  he  was 
fond  of  hard  labor.  One  of  his  Indiana  employers  says :  "Abe 
was  no  hand  to  pitch  into  work  like  killing  snakes ;"  but  when 
he  did  work,  it  was  with  an  ease  and  effectiveness  which 
compensated  his  employer  for  the  time  he  spent  in  practical 
jokes  and  extemporaneous  speeches.  He  could  lift  as  much 
as  three  ordinary  men,  and  "My,  how  he  would  chop,"  says 
(4) 


50  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

Dennis  Hanks.  "His  axe  would  flash  and  bite  into  a  sugar- 
tree  or  sycamore  and  down  it  would  come.  If  you  heard  him 
fellin'  trees  in  a  clearin',  you  would  say  there  was  three  men 
at  work  by  the  way  the  trees  fell." 

Standing  six  feet  four,  he  could  out-lift,  out- work  and 
out- wrestle  any*  man  he  came  in  contact  with.  Friends  and 
employers  were  proud  of  his  prowess,  and  boasted  of  it,  never 
failing  to  pit  him  against  any  hero  whose  strength  they  heard 
vaunted.  He  himself  was  proud  of  it,  and  throughout  his 
life  was  fond  of  comparing  himself  with  tall  and  strong  men. 
,When  the  committee  called  on  him  in  Springfield  in  1860,  to 
notify  him  of  his  nomination  as  President,  Governor  Mor- 
gan, of  New  York,  was  of  the  number,  a  man  of  great  height 
and  brawn.  "Pray,  Governor,  how  tall  may  you  be?''  was  Mr. 
Lincoln's  first  question.  There  is  a  story  told  of  a  poor  man 
seeking  a  favor  from  him  once  at  the  White  House.  He  was 
overpowered  by  the  idea  that  he  was  in  the  presence  of  the 
President,  and,  his  errand  done,  was  edging  shyly  away, 
when  Mr.  Lincoln  stopped  him,  insisting  that  he  measure 
with  him.  The  man  was  the  taller,  as  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
thought ;  and  he  went  away  evidently  as  much  abashed  that 
he  dared  be  taller  than  the  President  of  the  United  States  as 
that  he  had  dared  to  venture  into  his  presence. 

Governor  Hoyt  tells  an  excellent  story  illustrating  this  in- 
terest of  Lincoln's  in  manly  strength,  and  his  involuntary 
comparison  of  himself  with  whomsoever  showed  it.  It  was  in 
1859,  after  Lincoln  had  delivered  a  speech  at  the  Wisconsin 
State  Agricultural  Fair  in  Milwaukee.  Governor  Hoyt  had 
asked  him  to  make  the  rounds  of  the  exhibits,  and  they  went 
into  a  tent  to  see  a  "strong  man"  perform.  He  went  through 
the  ordinary  exercises  with  huge  iron  balls,  tossing  them  in 
the  air,  and  catching  them  and  rolling  them  on  his  arms  and 
back ;  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  evidently  had  never  before  seen 
such  a  combination  of  agility  and  strength,  watched  him  with 


STARTS  OUT  FOR  HIMSELF  51 

intense  interest,  ejaculating  under  his  breath  now  and  then: 
"By  George !  By  George  1"  When  the  performance  was  over, 
Governor  Hoyt,  seeing  Mr.  Lincoln's  interest,  asked  him  to 
go  up  and  be  introduced  to  the  athlete.  He  did  so ;  and,  as  he 
stood  looking  down  musingly  on  the  man,  who  was  very 
short,  and  evidently  wondering  that  one  so  much  smaller 
than  he  could  be  so  much  stronger,  he  suddenly  broke  out 
with  one  of  his  quaint  speeches.  "Why,"  he  said,  "why,  I 
could  lick  salt  off  the  top  of  your  hat." 

His  strength  won  him  popularity,  but  his  good-nature,  his 
wit,  his  skill  in  debate,  his  stories,  were  still  more  efficient  in 
gaining  him  good-will.  People  liked  to  have  him  around,  and 
voted  him  a  good  fellow  to  work  with.  Yet  such  were  the 
conditions  of  his  life  at  this  time  that,  in  spite  of  his  popu- 
larity, nothing  was  open  to  him  but  hard  manual  labor.  To 
take  the  first  job  which  he  happened  upon — rail-splitting, 
ploughing,  lumbering,  boating,  store-keeping — and  make  the 
<  most  of  it,  thankful  if  thereby  he  earned  his  bed  and  board 
and  yearly  suit  of  jeans,  was  apparently  all  there  was  before 
Abraham  Lincoln  in  1830,  when  he  started  out  for  himself. 

Through  the  summer  and  fall  of  1830  and  the  early  winter 
of  1831,  Mr.  Lincoln  worked  in  the  vicinity  of  his  father's 
new  home,  usually  as  a  farm-hand  and  rail-splitter.  Most  of 
his  work  was  done  in  company  with  John  Hanks.  Before  the 
end  of  the  winter  he  secured  employment  of  which  he  has 
given  an  account  himself,  though  in  the  third  person : 

"During  that  winter,  Abraham,  together  with  his  step- 
1,  mother's  son,  John  D.  Johnston,  and  John  Hanks,  yet  resid- 
ing in  Macon  County,  hired  themselves  to  Denton  Offutt  to 
take  a  flatboat  from  Beardstown,  Illinois,  to  New  Orleans, 
and  for  that  purpose  were  to  join  him — Offutt — at  Spring- 
field, Illinois,  as  soon  as  the  snow  should  go  off.  When  it  did 
go  off,  which  was  about  the  first  of  March,  1831,  the  country 
was  so  flooded  as  to  make  traveling  by  land  impracticable ;  to 
obviate  which  difficulty  they  purchased  a  large  canoe  and 


52  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

came  down  the  Sangamon  river  in  it.  This  is  the  time  and 
manner  of  Abraham's  first  entrance  into  Sangamon  County. 
They  found  Offutt  at  Springfield,  but  learned  from  him  that 
he  had  failed  in  getting  a  boat  at  Beardstown.  This  led  to 
their  hiring  themselves  to  him  for  twelve  dollars  per  month 
each,  and  getting  the  timber  out  of  the  trees,  and  building  a 
boat  at  old  Sangamon  town,  on  the  Sangamon  river,  seven 
miles  northwest  of  Springfield,  which  boat  they  took  to  New 
Orleans,  substantially  on  the  old  contract." 

Sangamon  town,  where  Lincoln  built  the  flatboat,  has, 
since  his  day,  completely  disappeared  from  the  earth;  but 
then  it  was  one  of  the  flourishing  settlements  on  the  river  of 
that  name.  Lincoln's  advent  in  the  town  did  not  go  unno- 
ticed. In  a  small  community,  cut  off  from  the  world,  as  old 
Sangamon  was,  every  new-comer  is  scrutinized  and  discussed 
before  he  is  regarded  with  confidence.  Lincoln  did  not  es- 
cape this  scrutiny.  His  appearance  was  so  striking  in  fact 
that  he  attracted  everybody's  attention.  "He  was  a  tall, 
gaunt  young  man,"  says  Mr.  John  Roll,  of  Springfield,  then 
a  resident  of  Sangamon,  "dressed  in  a  suit  of  blue  homespun 
jeans,  consisting  of  a  round-about  jacket,  waistcoat,  and 
breeches  which  came  to  within  about  four  inches  of  his  feet. 
The  latter  were  encased  in  rawhide  boots,  into  the  tops  of 
which,  most  of  the  time,  his  pantaloons  were  stuffed.  He 
wore  a  soft  felt  hat  which  had  at  one  time  been  black,  but 
now,  as  its  owner  dryly  remarked,  'was  sun-burned  until  it 
was  a  combine  of  colors.' ' 

It  took  some  four  weeks  to  build  the  raft,  and  in  that  pe- 
riod Lincoln  succeeded  in  captivating  the  entire  village  by  his 
story-telling.  It  was  the  custom  in  Sangamon  for  the  "men- 
folks"  to  gather  at  noon  and  in  the  evening,  when  resting,  in 
a  convenient  lane  near  the  mill.  They  had  rolled  out  a  long 
peeled  log,  on  which  they  lounged  while  they  whittled  and 
talked.  Lincoln  had  not  been  long  in  Sangamon  before  he 
joined  this  circle.  At  once  he  became  a  favorite  by  his  jokes 


STARTS  OUT  FOR  HIMSELF  53 

and  good-humor.  As  soon  as  he  appeared  at  the  assembly 
ground  the  men  would  start  him  to  story-telling.  So  irresist- 
ibly droll  were  his  "yarns"  that,  says  Mr.  Roll,  "whenever 
he'd  end  up  in  his  unexpected  way  the  boys  on  the  log  would 
whoop  and  roll  off."  The  result  of  the  rolling  off  was  to  pol- 
ish the  log  like  a  mirror.  The  men,  recognizing  Lincoln's 
part  in  this  polishing,  christened  their  seat  "Abe's  log."  Long 
after  Lincoln  had  disappeared  from  Sangamon,  "Abe's  log" 
remained,  and  until  it  had  rotted  away  people  pointed  it  out, 
and  repeated  the  droll  stories  of  the  stranger. 

When  the  flatboat  was  finished  Lincoln  and  his  friends  pre- 
pared to  leave  Sangamon.  Before  he  started,  however,  he 
was  the  hero  of  an  adventure  so  thrilling  that  he  won  new 
laurels  in  the  community.  Mr.  Roll,  who  was  a  witness  of  the 
whole  exciting  scene,  tells  the  story : 

"It  was  the  spring  following  the  winter  of  the  deep  snow.* 
Walter  Carman,  John  Seamon  and  myself,  and  at  times  oth- 
ers of  the  Carman  boys  had  helped  Abe  in  building  the  boat, 
and  when  we  had  finished  we  went  to  work  to  make  a  dug- 
out, or  canoe,  to  be  used  as  a  small  boat  with  the  flat.  We 
found  a  suitable  log  about  an  eighth  of  a  mile  up  the  river, 
and  with  our  axes  went  to  work  under  Lincoln's  direction. 
The  river  was  very  high,  fairly  'booming.'  After  the  dug- 
out was  ready  to  launch  we  took  it  to  the  edge  of  the  water, 
and  made  ready  to  'let  her  go,'  when  Walter  Carman  and 
John  Seamon  jumped  in  as  the  boat  struck  the  water,  each 
one  anxious  to  be  the  first  to  get  a  ride.  As  they  shot  out  from 
the  shore  they  found  they  were  unable  to  make  any  headway 
against  the  strong  current.  Carman  had  the  paddle,  and  Sea- 
mon was  in  the  stern  of  the  boat.  Lincoln  shouted  to  them  to 
'head  up  stream,'  and  'work  back  to  shore/  but  they  found 
themselves  powerless  against  the  stream.  At  last  they  began 
to  pull  for  the  wreck  of  an  old  flatboat,  the  first  ever  built  on 

*i830— 1831.  "The  winter  of  the  deep  snow"  is  the  date  which  is  the 
starting  point  in  all  calculations  of  time  for  the  early  settlers  of  Illinois, 
and  the  circumstance  from  which  the  old  settlers  of  Sangamon  Cot 
receive  the  name  by  which  they  are  generally  known,  "Snow-iirds 


54  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

the  Sangamon,  which  had  sunk  and  gone  to  pieces,  leaving 
one  of  the  stanchions  sticking  above  the  water.  Just  as  they 
reached  it  Seamon  made  a  grab,  and  caught  hold  of  the 
stanchion,  when  the  canoe  capsized,  leaving  Seamon  clinging 
to  the  old  timber,  and  throwing  Carman  into  the  stream.  It 
carried  him  down  with  the  speed  of  a  mill-race.  Lincoln 
raised  his  voice  above  the  roar  of  the  flood,  and  yelled  to  Car- 
man to  swim  for  an  old  tree  which  stood  almost  in  the  chan- 
nel, which  the  action  of  the  high  water  had  changed. 

"  Carman,  being  a  good  swimmer,  succeeded  in  catching 
a  branch,  and  pulled  himself  up  out  of  the  water,  which  was 
very  cold,  and  had  almost  chilled  him  to  death ;  and  there  he 
sat  shivering  and  chattering  in  the  tree.  Lincoln,  seeing  Car- 
man safe,  called  out  to  Seamon  to  let  go  the  stanchion  and 
swim  for  the  tree.  With  some  hesitation  he  obeyed,  and 
struck  out,  while  Lincoln  cheered  and  directed  him  from  the 
bank.  As  Seamon  neared  the  tree  he  made  one  grab  for  a 
branch,  and,  missing  it,  went  under  the  water.  Another  des- 
perate lunge  was  successful,  and  he  climbed  up  beside  Car- 
man. Things  were  pretty  exciting  now,  for  there  were  two 
men  in  the  tree,  and  the  boat  was  gone. 

"It  was  a  cold,  raw  April  day,  and  there  was  great  danger 
of  the  men  becoming  benumbed,  and  falling  back  into  the 
water.  Lincoln  called  out  to  them  to  keep  their  spirits  up  and 
he  would  save  them.  The  village  had  been  alarmed  by  this 
time,  and  many  people  had  come  down  to  the  bank.  Lincoln 
procured  a  rope,  and  tied  it  to  a  log.  He  called  all  hands  to 
come  and  help  roll  the  log  into  the  water,  and  after  this  had 
been  done,  he,  with  the  assistance  of  several  others,  towed  it 
some  distance  up  the  stream.  A  daring  young  fellow  by  the 
name  of  'Jim'  Dorrell  then  took  his  seat  on  the  end  of  the  log, 
and  it  was  pushed  out  into  the  current,  with  the  expectation 
that  it  would  be  carried  down  stream  against  the  tree  where 
Seamon  and  Carman  were. 

"The  log  was  well  directed,  and  went  straight  to  the  tree ; 
but  Jim,  in  his  impatience  to  help  his  friends,  fell  a  victim 
to  his  good  intentions.  Making  a  frantic  grab  at  a  branch, 
he  raised  himself  off  the  log,  which  was  swept  from  under 
him  by  the  raging  water,  and  he  soon  joined  the  other  two 
victims  upon  their  forlorn  perch.  The  excitement  on  shore 


STARTS  OUT  FOR  HIMSELF  55 

increased,  and  almost  the  whole  population  of  the  village 
gathered  on  the  river  bank.  Lincoln  had  the  log  pulled  up  the 
stream,  and,  securing  another  piece  of  rope,  called  to  the  men 
in  the  tree  to  catch  it  if  they  could  when  he  should  reach  the 
tree.  He  then  straddled  the  log  himself,  and  gave  the  word 
to  push  out  into  the  stream.  When  he  dashed  into  the  tree,  he 
threw  the  rope  over  the  stump  of  a  broken  limb,  and  let  it 
play  until  it  broke  the  speed  of  the  log,  and  gradually  drew  it 
back  to  the  tree,  holding  it  there  until  the  three  now  nearly 
frozen  men  had  climbed  down  and  seated  themselves  astride. 
He  then  gave  orders  to  the  people  on  the  shore  to  hold  fast 
to  the  end  of  the  rope  which  was  tied  to  the  log,  and,  leaving 
his  rope  in  the  tree  he  turned  the  log  adrift.  The  force  of  the 
current,  acting  against  the  taut  rope,  swung  the  log  around 
against  the  bank,  and  all  'on  board'  were  saved.  The  excited 
people,  who  had  watched  the  dangerous  experiment  with  al- 
ternate hope  and  fear,  now  broke  into  cheers  for  Abe  Lincoln 
and  praises  for  his  brave  act.  This  adventure  made  quite  a 
hero  of  him  along  the  Sangamon,  and  the  people  never  tired 
telling  of  the  exploit." 

The  flatboat  built  and  loaded,  the  party  started  for  New 
Orleans  about  the  middle  of  April.  They  had  gone  but 'a  few 
miles  when  they  met  with  another  adventure.  At  the  village 
of  New  Salem  there  was  a  mill-dam.  On  it  the  boat  stuck, 
and  here  for  nearly  twenty- four  hours  it  hung,  the  bow  in  the 
air  and  the  stern  in  the  water,  the  cargo  slowly  setting  back- 
wards— shipwreck  almost  certain.  The  village  of  New  Salem 
turned  out  in  a  body  to  see  what  the  strangers  would  do  in 
their  predicament.  They  shoute(J,  suggested,  and  advised  for 
a  time,  but  finally  discovered  that  one  big  fellow  in  the  crew 
was  ignoring  them  and  working  out  a  plan  of  relief.  Having 
unloaded  the  cargo  into  a  neighboring  boat,  Lincoln  had  suc- 
ceeded in  tilting  his  craft  Then,  by  boring  a  hole  in  the  end 
extending  over  the  dam,  the  water  was  let  out  This  done, 
the  boat  was  easily  shoved  over  and  reloaded.  The  ingenuity 
which  he  had  exercised  in  saving  his  boat  made  a  deep  im« 


56  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

pression  on  the  crowd  on  the  bank,  and  it  was  talked  over  fol 
many  a  day.  The  proprietor  of  boat  and  cargo  was  even  more 
enthusiastic  than  the  spectators,  and  vowed  he  would  build  a 
steamboat  for  the  Sangamon  and  make  Lincoln  the  captain. 
Lincoln  himself  was  interested  in  what  he  had  done,  and 
nearly  twenty  years  later  he  embodied  his  reflections  on  this 
adventure  in  a  curious  invention  for  getting  boats  over 
shoals. 

The  raft  over  the  New  Salem  dam,  the  party  went  on  to 
New  Orleans,  reaching  there  in  May,  1831,  and  remaining  a 
month.  It  must  have  been  a  month  of  intense  intellectual 
activity  for  Lincoln.  Since  his  first  visit,  made  with  young 
Gentry,  New  Orleans  had  entered  upon  her  "flush  times." 
Commerce  was  increasing  at  a  rate  which  dazzled  specula- 
tors and  drew  them  from  all  over  the  United  States.  From 
1830  to  1840  no  other  American  city  increased  in  such 
a  ratio;  exports  and  imports,  which  in  1831  amounted 
to  $26,000,000,  in  1835  had  more  than  doubled.  The  Creole 
l  population  had  held  the  sway  so  far  in  the  city ;  but  now  it 
came  into  competition,  and  often  into  conflict,  with  a  push- 
ing, ambitious,  and  frequently  unscrupulous  native  Ameri- 
can party.  To  these  two  predominating  elements  were  added 
Germans,  French,  Spanish,  negroes,  and  Indians.  Cosmo- 
politan in  its  make-up,  the  city  was  even  more  cosmopolitan 
in  its  life.  Everything  was  to  be  seen  in  New  Orleans  in  those 
days,  from  the  idle  luxury  of  the  wealthy  Creole  to  the  or- 
ganization of  filibustering  juntas.  The  pirates  still  plied  their 
trade  in  the  Gulf,  and  the  Mississippi  river  brought  down 
hundreds  of  river  boatmen — one  of  the  wildest,  wickedest 
set  of  men  that  ever  existed  in  any  city. 

Lincoln  and  his  companions  ran  their  boat  up  beside  thou- 
sands of  others.  It  was  the  custom  to  tie  such  craft  along 
the  river  front  where  St.  Mary's  Market  now  stands,  and 
one  could  walk  a  mile,  it  is  said,  over  the  tops  of  these  boats 


STARTS  OUT  FOR  HIMSELF  57 

without  going  ashore.  No  doubt  Lincoln  went  too,  to  live  in 
the  boatmen's  rendezvous,  called  the  "swamp/'  a  wild,  rough 
quarter,  where  roulette,  whiskey,  and  the  flint-lock  pistol 
ruled.  All  of  the  picturesque  life,  the  violent  contrasts  of  the 
city,  he  would  see  as  he  wandered  about ;  and  he  would  carry 
away  the  sharp  impressions  which  are  produced  when  mind 
and  heart  are  alert,  sincere,  and  healthy. 

In  this  month  spent  in  New  Orleans,  Lincoln  must  have 
seen  much  of  slavery.  At  that  time  the  city  was  full  of  slaves, 
and  the  number  was  constantly  increasing ;  indeed,  one-third 
of  the  New  Orleans  increase  in  population  between  1830  and 
1840  was  in  negroes.  One  of  the  saddest  features  of  the  in- 
stitution was  to  be  seen  there  in  its  aggravated  form — the 
slave  market.  The  better  class  of  slave-holders  of  the  South, 
who  looked  on  the  institution  as  patriarchal,  and  who 
guarded  their  slaves  with  conscientious  care,  knew  little, 
it  should  be  said,  of  this  terrible  traffic.  Their  transfer  of 
slaves  was  humane,  but  in  the  open  markets  of  the  city  it  was 
attended  by  shocking  cruelty  and  degradation.  Lincoln  wit- 
nessed in  New  Orleans  for  the  first  time  the  revolting  sight  of 
men  and  women  sold  like  animals.  Mr.  Herndon  says  that  he 
often  heard  Mr.  Lincoln  refer  to  this^penence : 

"In  New  Orleans  for  the  first  time,"  he  writes,  "Lincoln 
beheld  the  true  horrors  of  human  slavery.  He  saw  'negroes 
in  chains — whipped  and  scourged/  Against  this  Inhumanity 
his  sense  of  right  and  justice  rebelled,  and  his  mind  and  con- 
science were  awakened  to  a  realization  of  what  he  had  often 
heard  and  read.  No  doubt,  as  one  of  his  companions  has  said, 
'slavery  ran  the  iron  into  him  then  and  there.'  One  morning 
in  their  rambles  over  the  city  the  trio  passed  a  slave  auction. 
A  vigorous  and  comely  mulatto  girl  was  being  sold.  She  un- 
derwent a  thorough  examination  at  the  hands  of  the  bidders ; 
they  pinched  her  flesh,  and  made  her  trot  up  and  down  the 
room  like  a  horse,  to  show  how  she  moved,  and  in  order,  as 
the  auctioneer  sak^  that  'bidders  might  satisfy  themselves 


58  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

whether  the  article  they  were  offering  to  buy  was  sound  or 
not/  The  whole  thing  was  so  revolting  that  Lincoln  moved 
away  from  the  scene  with  a  deep  feeling  of  'unconquerable 
hate/  Bidding  his  companions  follow  him,  he  said :  'Boys, 
let's  get  away  from  this.  If  ever  I  get  a  chance  to  hit  that 
thing'  (meaning  slavery),  Til  hit  it  hard/  ' 

Mr.  Herndon  gives  John  Hanks  as  his  authority  for  this 
statement,  but,  according  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  autobiography, 
Hanks  did  not  go  on  to  New  Orleans,  but,  having  a  family, 
and  finding  that  he  was  likely  to  be  detained  from  home 
longer  than  he  had  expected,  he  turned  back  at  St.  Louis. 
Though  the  story  as  told  above  probably  grew  to  its  present 
proportions  by  much  telling,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
Lincoln  was  deeply  impressed  on  this  trip  by  something  he 
saw  in  a  New  Orleans  slave  market,  and  that  he  often  re- 
ferred to  it. 


THE  NEW   SALEM   MILL  TWENTY-FIVE  YEARS   AGO. 

After  a  painting  by  Mrs.  Bennett;  reproduced,  by  permission,  from  **Menard- 
galem-Lincoln  Souvenir  Album,"  Petersburg,  Illinois,  1893.  The  Rutledge  and  Cam- 
eron mill,  of  which  Lincoln  at  one  time  had  charge,  stood  on  the  same  spot  as  the  mill 
in  the  picture,  and  had  the  same  foundation. 


MOUTH   OF  ANDERSON   CREEK,    WHERE  LINCOLN   KEPT   THE   FERRY-BOAT. 

This  ferry,  at  the  mouth  of  Anderson  Creek,  was  first  established  and  owned  by 
James  McDaniel,  and  was  afterwards  kept  by  his  son-ir.-law  James  Taylor.  It  was  the 
latter  who  hired  Abraham  Lincoln,  about  1826,  to  attend  the  ferry-boat.  As  the  boat 
did  not  keep  him  busy  all  the  time,  he  acted  as  man-of-all-work  around  the  farm.  A 
son  of  James  Taylor,  Captain  Green  B.  Taylor  of  South  Dakato,  is  still  alive  and  ro- 
members  distinctly  the  months  Lincoln  spent  in  his  father's  employ.  Captain  Taylor 
eays  that  Lincoln  "slept  upstairs"  with  him,  and  used  to  read  "till  near  midnight." 


CHAPTER  V 

LINCOLN   SECURES   A   POSITION — HE   STUDIES    GRAMMAR— 
FIRST   APPEARANCE    IN    POLITICS 

THE  month  in  New  Orleans  passed  swiftly,  and  in  June, 
1831,  Lincoln  and  his  companions  took  passage  up  the  river. 
He  did  not  return,  however,  in  the  usual  condition  of  the 
river  boatman  "out  of  a  job."  According  to  his  own  way  of 
putting  it,  "during  this  boat-enterprise  acquaintance  with 
Offutt,  who  was  previously  an  entire  stranger,  he  conceived  a 
liking  for  Abraham,  and  believing  he  could  turn  him  to  ac- 
count he  contracted  with  him  to  act  as  a  clerk  for  him  on  his 
return  from  New  Orleans,  in  charge  of  a  store  and  mill  at 
New  Salem."  The  store  and  mill  were,  however,  so  far  only 
in  Offutt's  imagination,  and  Lincoln  had  to  drift  about  until 
his  employer  was  ready  for  him.  He  made  a  short  visit  to  his 
father  and  mother,  now  in  Coles  County,  near  Charleston 
(fever  and  ague  had  driven  the  Lincolns  from  their  first 
home  in  Macon  County),  and  then,  in  July,  1831,  he  went  to 
New  Salem,  where,  as  he  says,  he  "stopped  indefinitely,  and 
for  the  first  time,  as  it  were,  by  himself." 

The  village  of  New  Salem,  the  scene  of  Lincoln's  mercan- 
tile career,  was  one  of  the  many  little  towns  which,  in  the  pio- 
neer days,  sprang  up  along  the  Sangamon  river,  a  stream 
then  looked  upon  as  navigable  and  as  destined  to  be  counted 
among  the  highways  of  commerce.  Twenty  miles  northwest 
of  Springfield,  strung  along  the  left  bank  of  the  Sangamon, 
parted  by  hollows  and  ravines,  is  a  row  of  high  hills.  On 
one  of  these — -a  long,  narrow  ridge,  beginning  with  a  sharp 
and  sloping  point  near  the  river,  running  south,  and  parallel 

59 


60  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

with  the  stream  a  little  way,  and  then,  reaching  its  highest 
point,  making  a  sudden  turn  to  the  west,  and  gradually 
widening  until  lost  in  the  prairie — stood  this  frontier  village. 
The  crooked  river  for  a  short  distance  comes  from  the  east, 
and,  seemingly  surprised  at  meeting  the  bluff,  abruptly 
changes  its  course,  and  flows  to  the  north.  Across  the  river 
the  bottom  stretches  out  half  a  mile  back  to  the  highlands. 
New  Salem,  founded  in  1829  by  James  Rutledge  and  John 
Cameron,  and  a  dozen  years  later  a  deserted  village,  is  res- 
cued only  from  oblivion  by  the  fact  that  Lincoln  was  once 
one  of  its  inhabitants.  The  town  never  contained  more  than 
fifteen  houses,  all  of  them  built  of  logs,  but  it  had  an  ener- 
getic population  of  perhaps  one  hundred  persons,  among 
whom  were  a  blacksmith,  a  tinner,  a  hatter,  a  schoolmaster 
and  a  preacher.  New  Salem  boasted  a  grist-mill,  a  saw-mill, 
two  stores  and  a  tavern,  but  its  day  of  hope  was  short.  In 
1837  it  began  to  decline  and  by  1840,  Petersburg,  two  miles 
down  the  river,  had  absorbed  its  business  and  population.  Sa- 
lem Hill  is  now  only  a  green  cow  pasture.  .  ^ 

Lincoln's  first  sight  of  the  town  had  been  in  April,  1831, 
when  he  and  his  crew  had  been  detained  in  getting  their  flat- 
boat  over  the  Rutledge  and  Cameron  mill-dam.  When  he 
walked  into  New  Salem,  three  months  later,  he  was  not  alto- 
gether a  stranger,  for  the  people  remembered  him  as  the  in- 
genious flat-boatman  who  had  freed  his  boat  from  water  by 
resorting  to  the  miraculous  expedient  of  boring  a  hole  in  the 
bottom. 

Offutt's  goods  had  not  arrived  when  Mr.  Lincoln  reached 
New  Salem ;  and  he  "loafed"  about,  so  those  who  remember 
his  arrival  say,  good-naturedly  taking  a  hand  in  whatever  he 
could  find  tp  do,  and  in  his  droll  way  making  friends  of  ev- 
erybody. By  chance,  a  bit  of  work  fell  to  him  almost  at  once, 
which  introduced  him  generally  and  gave  him  an  opportunity 


KIN 


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FIRST  APPEARANCE  IN  POLITICS  6 1 

to  make  a  name  in  the  neighborhood.  It  was  election  day.  In 
those  days  elections  in  Illinois  were  conducted  by  the  viva 
voce  method.  The  people  did  try  voting  by  ballot,  but  the  ex- 
periment was  unpopular.  It  required  too  much  form  and 
in  1829  the  former  method  of  voting  was  restored.  The 
judges  and  clerks  sat  at  a  table  with  the  poll-book  before 
them.  The  voter  walked  up,  and  announced  the  candidate  of 
his  choice,  and  it  was  recorded  in  his  presence.  There  was  no 
ticket  peddling,  and  ballot-box  stuffing  was  impossible.  The 
village  school-master,  Mentor  Graham  by  name,  was  clerk  at 
this  particular  election,  but  his  assistant  was  ill.  Looking 
about  for  some  one  to  help  him,  Mr.  Graham  saw  a  tall 
stranger  loitering  around  the  polling-place,  and  called  to 
him :  "  Can  you  write  ?  "  "  Yes,"  said  the  stranger,  "  I  can 
make  a  few  rabbit  tracks."  Mr.  Graham  evidently  was  satis- 
fied with  the  answer,  for  he  promptly  initiated  him ;  and  he 
filled  his  place  not  only  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  employer, 
but  also  to  the  delectation  of  the  loiterers  about  the  polls,  for 
whenever  things  dragged  he  immediately  began  "  to  spin  out 
a  stock  of  Indian  yarns."  So  droll  were  they  that  men  who 
listened  to  Lincoln  that  day  repeated  them  long  after  to  their 
friends.  He  had  made  a  hit  in  New  Salem,  to  start  with,  and 
here,  as  in  Sangamon  town,  it  was  by  means  of  his  story-tell- 
ing. 

A  few  days  later  he  accepted  an  offer  to  pilot  down  the 
Sangamon  and  Illinois  rivers,  as  far  as  Beardstown,  a  flat- 
boat  bearing  the  family  and  goods  of  a  pioneer  bound  for 
Texas.  At  Beardstown  he  found  Offutt's  goods,  waiting  to 
be  taken  to  New  Salem.  As  he  footed  his  way  home  he  found 
two  men  with  a  wagon  and  ox-teana  going  for  the  goods. 
Offutt  had  expected  Lincoln  to  wait  at  Beardstown  until  the 
ox-team  arrived,  and  the  teamsters,  not  having  any  creden- 
tials, asked  Lincoln  to  give  them  an  order  for  the  goods. 


62  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

This,  sitting  down  by  the  roadside,  he  wrote  out ;  one  of  the 
men  used  to  relate  that  it  contained  a  misspelled  word,  which 
he  corrected. 

When  the  oxen  and  their  drivers  returned  with  the  goods, 
the  store  was  opened  in  a  little  log  house  on  the  brink  of  the 
hill,  almost  over  the  river.  The  precise  date  of  the  opening 
of  Denton  Offutt's  store  is  not  known.  We  only  know  that 
on  July  8,  1831,  the  County  Commissioners'  Court  of  Sanga- 
mon  County  granted  Offutt  a  license  to  retail  merchandise 
at  New  Salern,  for  which  he  paid  five  dollars,  a  fee  which 
supposed  him  to  have  one  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  goods 
in  stock. 

The  frontier  store  filled  a  unique  place.  Usually  it  was  a 
"  general  store,"  and  on  its  shelves  were  found  most  of  the 
articles  needed  in  a  community  of  pioneers.  But  supplying 
goods  and  groceries  was  not  its  only  function ;  it  was  the  pio- 
neer's intellectual  and  social  center.  It  was  the  common  meet- 
ing-place of  the  farmers,  the  happy  refuge  of  the  village 
loungers.  No  subject  was  unknown  there.  The  habitues  of 
the  place  were  equally  at  home  in  discussing  politics,  reli- 
gion, or  sports.  Stories  were  told,  jokes  were  cracked,  and 
the  news  contained  in  the  latest  newspaper  finding  its  way 
into  the  wilderness  was  repeated  again  and  again.  Lincoln 
could  hardly  have  chosen  surroundings  more  favorable  to 
the  highest  development  of  the  art  of  story-telling,  and  he 
had  not  been  there  long  before  his  reputation  for  drollery 
was  established. 

But  he  gained  popularity  and  respect  in  other  ways.  There 
was  near  the  village  a  settlement  called  Clary's  Grove,  the 
most  conspicuous  part  of  whose  population  was  an  organiza- 
tion known  as  the  "  Clary's  Grove  Boys."  They  exercised  a 
veritable  terror  over  the  neighborhood,  and  yet  they  were  not 
a  bad  set  of  fellows.  Mr.  Herndon,  who  knew  personally 
many  of  the  "boys,"  says; 


FIRST  APPEARANCE  IN  POLITICS  63 

"They  were  friendly  and  good-natured ;  they  could  trench 
a  pond,  dig  a  bog,  build  a  house ;  they  could  pray  and  fight, 
make  a  village  or  create  a  state.  They  would  do  almost  any- 
thing for  sport  or  fun,  love  or  necessity.  Though  rude  and 
rough,  though  life's  forces  ran  over  the  edge  of  the  bowl, 
foaming  and  sparkling  in  pure  deviltry  for  deviltry's  sake, 
yet  place  before  them  a  poor  man  who  needed  their  aid,  a 
lame  or  sick  man,  a  defenceless  woman,  a  widow,  or  an  or- 
phaned child,  they  melted  into  sympathy  and  charity  at  once. 
They  gave  all  they  had,  and  willingly  toiled  or  played  cards 
for  more.  Though  there  never  was  under  the  sun  a  more 
generous  parcel  of  rowdies,  a  stranger's  introduction  was 
likely  to  be  the  most  unpleasant  part  of  his  acquaintance  with 
them." 

Denton  Offutt,  Lincoln's  employer,  was  just  the  man  to 
love  to  boast  before  such  a  crowd.  He  seemed  to  feel  that 
Lincoln's  physical  prowess  shed  glory  on  himself,  and  he  de- 
clared the  country  over  that  his  clerk  could  lift  more,  throw 
farther,  run  faster,  jump  higher,  and  wrestle  better  than  any 
man  in  Sangamon  county.  The  Clary's  Grove  Boys,  of 
course,  felt  in  honor  bound  to  prove  this  false,  and  they  ap- 
pointed their  best  man,  one  Jack  Armstrong,  to  "throw  Abe." 
Jack  Armstrong  was,  according  to  the  testimony  of  all  who 
remember  him,  a  "powerful  twister,"  "square  built  and 
strong  as  an  ox,"  "the  best-made  man  that  ever  lived ;"  and 
everybody  knew  that  a  contest  between  him  and  Lincoln 
would  be  close.  Lincoln  did  not  like  to  "tussle  and  scuffle," 
he  objected  to  "woolling  and  pulling;"  but  Offutt  had  gone 
so  far  that  it  became  necessary  to  yield.  The  match  was  held 
on  the  ground  near  the  grocery.  Clary's  Grove  and  New  Sa- 
lem turned  out  generally  to  witness  the  bout,  and  betting  on 
the  result  ran  high,  the  community  as  a  whole  staking  their 
jack-knives,  tobacco  plugs,  and  "treats"  on  Armstrong.  The 
two  men  had  scarcely  taken  hold  of  each  other  before  it  was 
evident  that  the  Clary's  Grove  champion  had  met  a  match. 


OF  LINCOLN 

The  two  men  wrestled  long  and  hard,  but  both  kept  their  feet. 
Neither  could  throw  the  other,  and  Armstrong,  convinced  of 
this,  tried  a  "foul."  Lincoln  no  sooner  realized  the  game  of 
his  antagonist  than,  furious  with  indignation,  he  caught  him 
by  the  throat,  and  holding  him  out  at  arm's  length,  he  "shook 
him  like  a  child."  Armstrong's  friends  rushed  to  his  aid,  and 
for  a  moment  it  looked  as  if  Lincoln  would  be  routed  by  sheer 
force  of  numbers;  but  he  held  his  own  so  bravely  that  the 
"boys,"  in  spite  of  their  sympathies,  were  rilled  with  admira- 
tion. What  bid  fair  to  be  a  general  fight  ended  in  a  general 
hand-shake,  even  Jack  Armstrong  declaring  that  Lincoln  was 
the  "best  fellow  who  ever  broke  into  the  camp."  From  that 
day,  at  the  cock-fights  and  horse-races,  which  were  their 
common  sports,  he  became  the  chosen  umpire ;  and  when  the 
entertainment  broke  up  in  a  row — a  not  uncommon  occur- 
rence— he  acted  the  peacemaker  without  suffering  the  peace- 
maker's usual  fate.  Such  was  his  reputation  with  the 
"Clary's  Grove  Boys,"  after  three  months  in  New  Salem, 
that  when  the  fall  muster  came  off  he  was  elected  captain. 

Lincoln  showed  soon  that  if  he  was  unwilling  to  indulge  in 
"woolling  and  pulling"  for  amusement,  he  did  not  object  to 
it  in  the  interests  of  decency  and  order.  In  such  a  community 
as  New  Salem  there  are  always  braggarts  who  can  only  be 
made  endurable  by  fear.  To  them  Lincoln  soon  became  an  au- 
thority more  to  be  respected  than  sheriff  or  constable.  If  they 
transgressed  in  his  presence  he  thrashed  them  promptly  with 
an  imperturbable  air,  half  indolent,  but  wholly  resolute  which 
was  more  baffling  and  impressive  than  even  his  iron  grip  and 
well-directed  blows.  A  man  came  into  the  store  one  day  and 
began  swearing.  Now,  profanity  in  the  presence  of  women, 
Lincoln  never  would  allow.  He  asked  the  man  to  stop ;  but 
he  persisted,  loudly  boasting  that  nobody  should  prevent  his 
saying  what  he  wanted  to.  The  women  gone,  the  man  began 
to  abuse  Lincoln  so  hotly  that  the  latter  said :  "Well,  if  you 


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FIRST  APPEARANCE  IKTPOLITlCSr          6$ 

must  be  whipped,  I  suppose  I  might  as  well  whip  you  as  anjj 
other  man;"  and  going  outdoors  with  the  fellow,  he  threw 
him  on  the  ground,  and  rubbed  smart- weed  into  his  eyes  until 
he  bellowed  for  mercy.  New  Salem's  sense  of  chivalry  was 
touched,  and  Denton  Offutt's  clerk  became  more  of  a  hero 
than  ever.  *  ';  *"*'•' 

i  His  honesty  excited  no  less  admiration.  Two  incidents 
seem  to  have  particularly  impressed  the  community.  Having' 
discovered  on  one  occasion  that  he  had  taken  six  and  one- 
quarter  cents  too  much  from  a  customer,  he  walked  three 
miles  that  evening,  after  his  store  was  closed,  to  return  the 
money.  Again,  he  weighed  out  a  half-pound  of  tea,  as  He 
supposed.  It  was  night,  and  this  was  the  last  thing  he  did  be- 
fore closing  up.  On  entering  in  the  morning  he  discovered  a 
four-ounce  weight  in  the  scales.  He  saw  his  mistake,  and 
closing  up  shop,  hurried  off  to  deliver  the  remainder  of  the 
tea.  This  unusual  regard  for  the.  rights  of  others  soon  won 
him  the  title  of  "Honest  Abe." 

As  soon  as  the  store  was  fairly  under  way,  Lincoln  began 
to  look  about  for  books.  Since  leaving  Indiana  in  March, 
1830,  he  had  had  in  his  drifting  life,  little  leisure  or  op- 
portunity for  study,  though  a  great  deal  for  observation 
of  men  and  of  life.  His  experience  had  made  him  realize 
more  and  more  clearly  that  power  over  men  depends 
upon  knowledge.  He  had  found  that  he  was  himself  supe- 
rior to  many  of  those  who  were  called  the  "great"  men  of 
the  country.  Soon  after  entering  Macon  county,  in  March, 
1830,  when  he  was  only  twenty-one  years  old,  he  had  found 
he  could  make  a  better  speech  than  at  least  one  man  who  was 
before  the  public.  A  candidate  had  come  along  where  he  and 
John  Hanks  were  at  work,  and,  as  John  Hanks  tells  the  story, 
the  man  made  a  speech.  "It  was  a  bad  one,  and  I  said  Abe 
could  heat  it.  I  turned  down  a  box,  and  Abe  made  his  speech. 
The  other  man  was  a  candidate,  Abe  wasn't.  Abe  beat  him 

(s) 


C6  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

to  death,  his  subject  being  the  navigation  of  the  Sangamon 
river.  The  man,  after  Abe's  speech  was  through,  took  him 
aside  and  asked  him  where  he  had  learned  so  much,  and  how 
he  could  do  so  well.  Abe  replied,  stating  his  manner  and 
method  of  reading,  what  he  had  read.  The  man  encouraged 
him  to  persevere." 

He  studied  men  carefully,  comparing  himself  with  them. 
Could  he  do  what  they  did  ?  He  seems  never  up  to  this  time 
to  have  met  one  who  was  incomprehensible  to  him.  "I  have 
talked  with  great  men,"  he  told  his  fellow-clerk  and  friend 
Greene,  "and  I  do  not  see  how  they  differ  from  others." 
Then  he  found,  too,  that  people  listened  to  him,  that  they 
quoted  his  opinions,  and  that  his  friends  were  already  say- 
ing that  he  was  able  to  fill  any  position.  Offutt  even  de- 
clared the  country  over  that  "Abe"  knew  more  than  any 
man  in  the  United  States,  and  that  some  day  he  would  be 
President. 

When  he  began  to  realize  that  he  himself  possessed  the 
qualities  which  made  men  great  in  Illinois,  that  success  de- 
pended upon  knowledge  and  that  already  his  friends  cred- 
ited him  with  possessing  more  than  most  members  of 
the  community,  his  ambition  was  encouraged  and  his  desire 
to  learn  increased.  Why  should  he  not  try  for  a  public  posi- 
tion ?  He  began  to  talk  to  his  friends  of  his  ambition  and  to 
devise  plans  for  sdf-improvement.  In  order  to  keep  in  prac- 
tice in  speaking  he  walked  seven  or  eight  miles  to  debating 
clubs.  "Practicing  polemics,"  was  what  he  called  the  exer- 
cise. He  seems  now  for  the  first  time  to  have  begun  to  study 
subjects.  Grammar  was  what  he  chose.  He  sought  Mentor 
Graham,  the  schoolmaster,  and  asked  his  advice.  "If  you  are 
going  before  the  public,"  Mr.  Graham  told  him,  "you  ought 
to  do  it."  But  where  could  he  get  a  grammar  ?  There  was  but 
one,  said  Mr.  Graham,  in  the  neighborhood,  and  that  was  six 
miles  away.  Without  waiting  for  further  information,  the 


FIRST  APPEARANCE  IN  POLITICS  67 

young  man  rose  from  the  breakfast-table,  walked  immedi- 
ately to  the  place  and  borrowed  this  rare  copy  of  Kirkham's 
Grammar.  From  that  time  on  for  weeks  he  gave  every  mo- 
ment of  his  leisure  to  mastering  the  contents  of  the  book. 
Frequently  he  asked  his  friend  Greene  to  "hold  the  book" 
while  he  recited,  and,  when  puzzled  by  a  point,  he  would 
consult  Mr.  Graham. 

Lincoln's  eagerness  to  learn  was  such  that  the  whole 
neighborhood  became  interested.  The  Greenes  lent  him 
books,  the  schoolmaster  kept  him  in  mind  and  helped  him  as 
he  could,  and  the  village  cooper  let  him  come  into  his  shop 
and  keep  up  a  fire  of  shavings  sufficiently  bright  to  read  by  at 
night.  It  was  not  long  before  the  grammar  was  mastered. 
"Well,"  Lincoln  said  to  his  fellow-clerk,  Greene,  "if  that's 
what  they  call  a  science,  I  think  I'll  go  at  another." 

Before  the  winter  was  ended  he  had  become  the  most  popu- 
lar man  in  New  Salem.  Although  he  was  but  twenty-two 
years  of  age,  in  February,  1832,  had  never  been  at  school  an 
entire  year  in  his  life,  had  never  made  a  speech  except  in  de- 
bating clubs  and  by  the  roadside,  had  read  only  the  books  he 
could  pick  up,  and  known  only  the  men  who  made  up  the 
poor,  out-of-the-way  towns  in  which  he  had  lived,  "encour- 
aged by  his  great  popularity  among  his  immediate  neigh- 
bors," as  he  says  himself,  he  decided  to  announce  himself,  in 
March,  1832,  as  a  candidate  for  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
State. 

The  only  preliminary  expected  of  a  candidate  for  the  leg- 
islature of  Illinois  at  that  date  was  an  announcement  stating 
his  "sentiments  with  regard  to  local  affairs."  The  circular  in 
which  Lincoln  complied  with  this  custom  was  a  document  of 
about  two  thousand  words,  in  which  he  plunged  at  once  into 
the  subject  he  believed  most  interesting  to  his  constituents — 
"the  public  utility  of  internal  improvements." 

At  that  time  the  State  of  Illinois — as,  indeed,  the  whole 


6B  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

United  States — was  convinced  that  the  future  of  the  country 
depended  on  the  opening  of  canals  and  railroads,  and  the 
clearing  out  of  the  rivers.  In  the  Sangamon  country  the 
population  felt  that  a  quick  way  of  getting  to  Beardstown  on 
the  Illinois  river,  to  which  point  the  steamer  came  from  the 
Mississippi,  was,  as  Lincoln  puts  it  in  his  circular,  "indis- 
pensably necessary."  Of  course  a  railroad  was  the  dream  of 
the  settlers ;  but  when  it  was  considered  seriously  there  was 
always,  as  Lincoln  says,  "a  heart-appalling  shock  accom- 
panying the  amount  of  its  cost,  which  forces  us  to  shrink 
from  our  pleasing  anticipations.  The  probable  cost  of  this 
contemplated  railroad  is  estimated  at  two  hundred  and 
ninety  thousand  dollars ;  the  bare  statement  of  which,  in  my 
opinion,  is  sufficient  to  justify  the  belief  that  the  improve- 
ment of  the  Sangamon  river  is  an  object  much  better  suited 
to  our  infant  resources. 

"  Respecting  this  view,  I  think  I  may  say,  without  the  fear 
of  being  contradicted,  that  its  navigation  may  be  rendered 
completely  practicable  as  high  as  the  mouth  of  the  South 
Fork,  or  probably  higher,  to  vessels  of  from  twenty-five  to 
thirty  tons  burden,  for  at  least  one-half  of  all  common  years, 
and  to  vessels  of  much  greater  burden  a  part  of  the  time. 
From  my  peculiar  circumstances,  it  is  probable  that  for  the 
last  twelve  months  I  have  given  as  particular  attention  to  the 
stage  of  the  water  in  this  river  as  any  other  person  in  the 
country.  In  the  month  of  March,  1831,  in  company  with 
others,  I  commenced  the  building  of  a  flatboat  on  the  Sanga- 
mon, and  finished  and  took  her  out  in  the  course  of  the 
spring.  Since  that  time  I  have  been  concerned  in  the  mill  at 
New  Salem.  These  circumstances  are  sufficient  evidence  that 
I  have  not  been  very  inattentive  to  the  stages  of  the  water. 
The  time  at  which  we  crossed  the  mill-dam  being  in  the  last 
days  of  April,  the  water  was  lower  than  it  had  been  since  the 
breaking  of  winter  in  February,  or  than  it  was  for  several 
weeks  after.  The  principal  difficulties  we  encountered  in  de- 
scending the  river  were  from  the  drifted  timber,  which  ob- 
structions all  know  are  not  difficult  to  be  removed.  Knowing 


FIRST  APPEARANCE  IN  POLITICS  69 

almost  precisely  the  height  of  water  at  that  time,  I  believe  I 
am  safe  in  saying  that  it  has  as  often  been  higher  as  lower 
since. 

"From  this  view  of  the  subject  it  appears  that  my  calcula- 
tions with  regard  to  the  navigation  of  the  Sangamon  cannot 
but  be  founded  in  reason ;  but,  whatever  may  be  its  natural 
advantages,  certain  it  is  that  it  never  can  be  practically  useful 
to  any  great  extent  without  being  greatly  improved  by  art. 
The  drifted  timber,  as  I  have  before  mentioned,  is  the  most 
formidable  barrier  to  this  object.  Of  all  parts  of  this  river, 
none  will  require  so  much  labor  in  proportion  to  make  it 
navigable  as  the  last  thirty  or  thirty-five  miles;  and  going 
with  the  meanderings  of  the  channel,  when  we  are  this  dis- 
tance above  its  mouth  we  are  only  between  twelve  and 
eighteen  miles  above  Beardstown  in  something  near  a 
straight  direction ;  and  this  route  is  upon  such  low  ground  as 
to  retain  water  in  many  places  during  the  season,  and  in  all , 
parts  such  as  to  draw  two-thirds  or  three-fourths  of  the  river 
water  at  all  high  stages. 

"This  route  is  on  prairie  land  the  whole  distance,  so  that 
it  appears  to  me,  by  removing  the  turf  a  sufficient  width,  and 
damming  up  the  old  channel,  the  whole  river  in  a  short  time 
would  wash  its  way  through,  thereby  curtailing  the  distance 
and  increasing  the  velocity  of  the  current  very  considerably, 
while  there  would  be  no  timber  on  the  banks  to  obstruct  its 
navigation  in  future;  and  being  nearly  straight,  the  tim- 
ber which  might  float  in  at  the  head  would  be  apt  to  go  clear 
through.  There  are  also  many  places  above  this  where  the 
river,  in  its  zigzag  course,  forms  such  complete  peninsulas  as 
to  be  easier  to  cut  at  the  necks  than  to  remove  the  obstruc- 
tions from  the  bends,  which,  if  done,  would  also  lessen  the 
distance. 

"What  the  cost  of  this  work  would  be,  I  am  unable  to  say. 
It  is  probable,  however,  that  it  would  not  be  greater  than  is 
common  to  streams  of  the  same  length.  Finally,  I  believe 
the  improvement  of  the  Sangamon  river  to  be  vastly  impor- 
tant and  highly  desirable  to  the  people  of  the  county ;  and,  if 
elected,  any  measure  in  the  legislature  having  this  for  its  ob- 
ject, which  may  appear  judicious,  will  meet  my  approbation 
and  receive  my  supnort." 


70  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

Lincoln  could  not  have  adopted  a  measure  more  popular. 
At  that  moment  the  whole  population  of  Sangamon  was  in  a 
state  of  wild  expectation.  Some  six  weeks  before  Lin- 
coln's circular  appeared,  a  citizen  of  Springfield  had  adver- 
tised that  as  soon  as  the  ice  went  off  the  river  he  would  bring 
up  a  steamer,  the  "Talisman/'  from  Cincinnati,  and  prove  the 
Sangamon  navigable.  The  announcement  had  aroused  the 
entire  country,  speeches  were  made,  and  subscriptions  taken. 
The  merchants  announced  goods  direct  per  steamship  "Talis- 
man," the  country  over,  and  every  village  from  Beardstown 
to  Springfield  was  laid  off  in  town  lots.  When  the  circular 
appeared  the  excitement  was  at  its  height. 

Lincoln's  comments  in  his  circular  on  two  other  subjects, 
on  which  all  candidates  of  the  day  expressed  themselves,  are 
amusing  in  their  simplicity.  The  practice  of  loaning  money 
at  exorbitant  rates  was  then  a  great  evil  in  the  West.  Lin- 
coln proposed  that  the  limits  of  usury  be  fixed,  and  he  closed 
his  paragraph  on  the  subject  with  these  words,  which  sound 
strange  enough  from  a  man  who  in  later  life  showed  so  pro- 
found a  reverence  for  law : 

"In  cases  of  extreme  necessity,  there  could  always  be 
means  found  to  cheat  the  law;  while  in  all  other  cases  it 
would  have  its  intended  effect.  I  would  favor  the  passage  of 
a  law  on  this  subject  whLh  might  not  be  very  easily  evaded. 
Let  it  be  such  that  the  labor  and  difficulty  of  evading  it  could 
only  be  justified  in  cases  of  greatest  necessity." 

A  general  revision  of  the  laws  of  the  State  was  the  second 
topic  which  he  felt  required  a  word.  "Considering  the  great 
probability,"  he  said,  "that  the  framers  of  those  laws  were 
wiser  than  myself,  I  should  prefer  not  meddling  with  them, 
unless  they  were  first  attacked  by  others;  in  which  case  I 
should  feel  it  both  a  privilege  and  a  duty  to  take  that  stand 
which,  in  my  view,  might  tend  most  to  the  advancement  of 
justice." 

Of  course  he  said  a  word  for  education^ 


FIRST  APPEARANCE  IN  POLITICS  7 1 

"Upon  the  subject  of  education,  not  presuming  to  dictate 
any  plan  or  system  respecting  it,  I  can  only  say  that  I  view  it 
as  the  most  important  subject  which  we  as  a  people  can  be 
engaged  in.  That  every  man  may  receive  at  least  a  moderate 
education,  and  thereby  be  enabled  to  read  the  histories  of  his 
own  and  other  countries,  by  which  he  may  duly  appreciate 
the  value  of  our  free  institutions,  appears  to  be  an  object  of 
vital  importance,  even  on  this  account  alone,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  advantages  and  satisfaction  to  be  derived  from  all 
being  able  to  read  the  Scriptures,  and  other  works  both  of  a 
religious  and  moral  nature,  for  themselves. 

"For  my  part,  I  desire  to  see  the  time  when  education — 
and  by  its  means,  morality,  sobriety,  enterprise,  and  industry 
— shall  become  much  more  general  than  at  present,  and 
should  be  gratified  to  have  it  in  my  power  to  contribute  some- 
thing to  the  advancement  of  any  measure  which  might  have 
a  tendency  to  accelerate  that  happy  period." 

The  audacity  of  a  young  man  in  his  position  presenting 
himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  legislature  is  fully  equaled  by 
the  humility  of  the  closing  paragraphs  of  his  announcement : 

"But,  fellow-citizens,  I  shall  conclude.  Considering  the 
great  degree  of  modesty  which  should  always  attend  youth, 
it  is  probable  I  have  already  been  more  presuming  than 
becomes  me.  However,  upon  the  subjects  of  which  I  have 
treated,  I  have  spoken  as  I  have  thought.  I  may  be  wrong  in 
regard  to  any  or  all  of  them ;  but,  holding  it  a  sound  maxim 
that  it  is  better  only  sometimes  to  be  right  than  at  all  times 
to  be  wrong,  so  soon  as  I  discover  my  opinions  to  be  errone- 
ous, I  shall  be  ready  to  renounce  them. 

"Every  man  is  said  to  have  his  peculiar  ambition.  Whether 
it  be  true  or  not,  I  can  say,  for  one,  that  I  have  no  other  so 
great  as  that  of  being  truly  esteemed  of  my  fellow-men,  by 
rendering  myself  worthy  of  their  esteem.  How  far  I  shall 
succeed  in  gratifying  this  ambition  is  yet  to  be  developed.  I 
am  young,  and  unknown  to  many  of  you.  I  was  born,  and 
have  ever  remained,  in  the  most  humble  walks  of  life.  I  have 
no  wealthy  or  popular  relations  or  friends  to  recommend  me. 
My  case  is  thrown  exclusively  upon  the  independent  voters  of 
the  county ;  and,  if  elected*  they  will,  hayfi  conferred  a  favor 


72  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

upon  me  for  which  I  shall  be  unremitting  in  my  labors  to 
compensate.  But,  if  the  good  people  in  their  wisdom  shall  see 
fit  to  keep  me  in  the  background,  I  have  been  too  familiar 
with  disappointments  to  be  very  much  chagrined." 

;  Very  soon  after  Lincoln  had  distributed  his  hand-bills,  en- 
thusiasm on  the  subject  of  the  opening  of  the  Sangamon  rose 
to  a  fever.  The  "Talisman"  actually  came  up  the  river; 
scores  of  men  went  to  Beardstown  to  meet  her,  among  them 
Lincoln,  of  course,  and  to  him  was  given  the  honor  of  pilot- 
ing her — an  honor  which  made  him  remembered  by  many  a 
man  who  saw  him  that  day  for  the  first  time.  The  trip  was 
made  with  all  the  wild  demonstrations  which  always  attended 
the  first  steamboat.  On  either  bank  a  long  procession  of  men 
and  boys  on  foot  or  horse  accompanied  the  boat.  Cannons 
and  volleys  of  musketry  were  fired  from  every  settlement 
passed.  At  every  stop  speeches  were  made,  congratulations 
offered,  toasts  drunk,  flowers  presented.  It  was  one  long  hur- 
rah from  Beardstown  to  Springfield,  and  foremost  in  the  ju- 
bilation was  Lincoln,  the  pilot.  The  "Talisman"  went  to  the 
point  on  the  river  nearest  to  Springfield,  and  there  tied  up  for 
a  week.  When  she  went  back  Lincoln  again  had  the  conspicu- 
ous position  of  pilot.  The  notoriety  this  gave  him  was  prob- 
ably quite  as  valuable  politically,  as  the  forty  dollars  he 
received  for  his  service  was  financially. 

While  the  country  had  been  dreaming  of  wealth  through 
the  opening  of  the  Sangamon,  and  Lincoln  had  been  doing 
his  best  to  prove  that  the  dream  would  be  realized,  the  store 
in  which  he  clerked  was  "petering  out" — to  use  his  expres- 
sion. The  owner,  Denton  Offutt,  had  proved  more  ambitious 
than  wise,  and  Lincoln  saw  that  an  early  dosing  by  the 
sheriff  was  probable.  But  before  the  store  was  fairly  closed, 
and  while  the  "Talisman"  was  yet  exciting  the  country,  an 
event  occurred  which  interrupted  all  of  Lincoln's  plans. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR — LINCOLN   CHOSEN   CAPTAIN   OF  A 

COMPANY REENLISTS    AS    AN    INDEPENDENT    RANGER 

END  OF  THE  WAR 

ONE  morning  in  April  a  messenger  from  the  governor  of 
the  State  rode  into  New  Salem,  scattering  circulars.  The 
circular  was  addressed  to  the  militia  of  the  northwest  sec- 
tion of  the  State,  and  announced  that  the  British  band  of 
Sacs  and  other  hostile  Indians,  headed  by  Black  Hawk,  had 
invaded  the  Rock  River  country,  to  the  great  terror  of  the 
frontier  inhabitants ;  and  it  called  upon  the  citizens  who  were 
willing  to  aid  in  repelling  them,  to  rendezvous  at  Beardstown 
within  a  week. 

The  name  of  Black  Hawk  was  familiar  to  the  people  of 
Illinois.  He  was  an  old  enemy  of  the  settlers,  and  had  been 
a  tried  friend  of  the  British.  The  land  his  people  had  once 
owned  in  the  northwest  of  the  present  State  of  Illinois  had 
been  sold  in  1804  to  the  government  of  the  United  States,  but 
with  the  provision  that  the  Indians  could  hunt  and  raise 
corn  there  until  it  was  surveyed  and  sold  to  settlers.  Long 
before  the  land  was  surveyed,  however,  squatters  had  invaded 
the  country,  and  tried  to  force  the  Indians  west  of  the  Miss- 
issippi. Particularly  envious  were  these  whites  of  the  lands 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Rock  river,  where  the  ancient  village  and 
burial  place  of  the  Sacs  stood,  and  where  they  came  each  year 
to  raise  corn.  Black  Hawk  had  resisted  their  encroachments, 
and  many  violent  acts  had  been  committed  on  both  sides. 

Finally,  however,  the  squatters,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
line  of  settlement  was  still  fifty  miles  away,  succeeded  in 

73 


74  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

evading  the  real  meaning  of  the  treaty  and  in  securing  a  sur- 
vey of  the  desired  land  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Black 
Hawk,  exasperated  and  broken-hearted  at  seeing  his  village 
violated,  persuaded  himself  that  the  village  had  never  been 
sold — indeed,  that  land  could  not  be  sold. 

"My  reason  teaches  me,"  he  wrote,  "that  land  cannot  be 
sold.  The  Great  Spirit  gave  it  to  his  children  to  live  upon, 
and  cultivate,  as  far  as  is  necessary,  for  their  subsistence; 
and  so  long  as  they  occupy  and  cultivate  it  they  have  the  right 
to  the  soil,  but  if  they  voluntarily  leave  it,  then  any  other  peo- 
ple have  a  right  to  settle  upon  it.  Nothing  can  be  sold  but 
such  things  as  can  be  carried  away." 

Supported  by  this  theory,  conscious  that  in  some  way  he 
did  not  understand  he  had  been  wronged,  and  urged  on  by 
White  Cloud,  the  prophet,  who  ruled  a  Winnebago  village  on 
the  Rock  river,  Black  Hawk  crossed  the  Mississippi  in  1831, 
determined  to  evict  the  settlers.  A  military  demonstration 
drove  him  back,  and  he  was  persuaded  to  sign  a  treaty  never 
to  return  east  of  the  Mississippi.  "I  touched  the  goose-quill 
to  the  treaty  and  was  determined  to  live  in  peace/'  he  wrote 
afterwards ;  but  hardly  had  he  "touched  the  goose-quill"  be- 
fore his  heart  smote  him.  Longing  for  his  home,  resentment 
at  the  whites,  obstinacy,  brooding  over  the  bad  counsels  of 
White  Cloud  and  his  disciple,  Neapope — an  agitating  Indian 
who  had  recently  been  east  to  visit  the  British  and  their  In- 
dian allies,  and  who  assured  Black  Hawk  that  the  Winneba- 
goes,  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  and  Pottawottomies  would  join 
him  in  a  struggle  for  his  land,  and  that  the  British  would 
send  him  guns,  ammunition,  provisions,  and  clothing  early 
in  the  spring — all  persuaded  the  Hawk  that  he  would  be  suc- 
cessful if  he  made  an  effort  to  drive  out  the  whites.  In  spite 
of  the  advice  of  many  of  his  friends  and  of  the  Indian  agent 
in  the  country,  he  crossed  the  river  on  April  6,  1832,  and  with 


THE  BLACK   HAWK 

After  a  portrait  by  George  Catlin,  in  the  National  Museum  at  Washin 
nere  reproduced  by  the  courtesy  of  the  director,  Mr.  G.  Brown  Goode.  M 
kiak,  the  Black  Hawk  Sparrow,  was  born  in  1767  on  the  Rock  River. 


D.C.,and 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR  75 

some  five  hundred  braves,  his  squaws  and  children,  marched 
to  the  Prophet's  town,  thirty-five  miles  up  the  Rock  river. 

As  soon  as  they  heard  of  Black  Hawk's  invasion,  the  set- 
tlers of  the  northwestern  part  of  the  State  fled  in  a  panic  to 
the  forts;  and  from  there  rained  petitions  for  protection  on 
Governor  Reynolds.  General  Atkinson,  who  was  at  Fort 
Armstrong,  wrote  to  the  governor  for  reinforcements ;  and, 
accordingly  on  the  i6th  of  April  Governor  Reynolds  sent  out 
"influential  messengers"  with  a  sonorous  summons.  It  was 
one  of  these  messengers  riding  into  New  Salem  who  put  an 
end  to  Lincoln's  canvassing  for  the  legislature,  freed  him 
from  Offutt's  expiring  grocery,  and  led  him  to  enlist. 

There  was  no  time  to  waste.  The  volunteers  were  ordered 
to  be  at  Beardstown,  nearly  forty  miles  from  New  Salem,  on 
April  22d.  Horses,  rifles,  saddles,  blankets  were  to  be  se- 
cured, a  company  formed.  It  was  work  of  which  the  settlers 
were  not  ignorant.  Under  the  laws  of  the  State  every  able- 
bodied  male  inhabitant  between  eighteen  and  forty-five  was 
obliged  to  drill  twice  a  year  or  pay  a  fine  of  one  dollar.  "As  a 
dollar  was  hard  to  raise,"  says  one  of  the  old  settlers,  "every- 
body drilled." 

Preparations  were  quickly  made,  and  by  April  22d  the  men 
were  at  Beardstown.  The  day  before,  at  Richland,  Sanga- 
mon  County,  Lincoln  was  elected  captain  of  the  company 
from  Sangamon. 

According  to  his  friend  Greene  it  was  something  beside 
ambition  which  led  him  to  seek  the  captaincy.  One  of  the 
"odd  jobs"  which  Lincoln  had  taken  since  coming 
into  Illinois  was  working  in  a  saw-mill  for  a  man 
named  Kirkpatrick.  In  hiring  Lincoln,  Kirkpatrick 
had  promised  to  buy  him  a  cant-hook  with  which 
to  move  heavy  logs.  Lincoln  had  proposed,  if  Kirk- 
pNatrick  would  give  him  the  two  dollars  which  the  cant- 
hook  would  cost,  to  move  the  logs'  with  a  common  hand- 


76  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

spike.  This  the  proprietor  had  agreed  to,  but  when  pay-clay 
came  he  refused  to  keep  his  word.  When  the  Sangamon  com- 
pany of  volunteers  was  formed  Kirkpatrick  aspired  to  the 
captaincy,  and  Lincoln  knowing  it,  said  to  Greene :  "Bill,  I 
believe  I  can  make  Kirkpatrick  pay  me  that  two  dollars  he 
owes  me  on  the  cant-hook.  I'll  run  against  him  for  captain." 
And  he  became  a  candidate.  The  vote  was  taken  in  a  field,  by 
directing  the  men  at  the  command  "march"  to  assemble 
around  the  one  they  wanted  for  captain.  When  the  order  was 
given,  three-fourths  of  the  men  gathered  around  Lincoln.  In 
Lincoln's  third-person  autobiography  he  says  he  was  elected 
"to  his  own  surprise ;"  and  adds,  "He  says  he  has  not  since 
had  any  success  in  life  which  gave  him  so  much  satisfaction." 
The  company  was  a  motley  crowd  of  men.  Each  had  se- 
cured for  his  outfit  what  he  could  get,  and  no  two  were 
equipped  alike.  Buckskin  breeches  prevailed,  and  there 
was  a  sprinkling  of  coon-skin  caps.  Each  man  had  a 
blanket  of  the  coarsest  texture.  Flint-lock  rifles  were  the 
usual  arm,  though  here  and  there  a  man  had  a  Cramer.  Over 
the  shoulder  of  each  was  slung  a  powder-horn.  The  men  had, 
as  a  rule,  as  little  regard  for  discipline  as  for  appearances, 
and  when  the  new  captain  gave  an  order  were  as  likely  to  jeer 
at  it  as  to  obey  it.  To  drive  the  Indians  out  was  their  mission, 
and  any  order  which  did  not  bear  directly  on  that  point  was 
little  respected.  Lincoln  himself  was  not  familiar  with  mili- 
tary tactics,  and  made  many  blunders  of  which  he  used  to  tell 
afterwards  with  relish.  One  of  these  was  an  early  experience 
in  giving  orders.  He  was  marching  with  a  front  of  over 
twenty  men  across  a  field,  when  he  desired  to  pass  through 
a  gateway  into  the  next  inclosure.  ^  v 

,  "I  could  not  for  the  life  of  me,"  said  he,  "remember  the 
proper  word  of  command  for  getting  my  company  endwise, 
so  that  it  could  get  through  the  gate ;  so,  as  we  came  near  I 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR  77 

shouted :  This  company  is  dismissed  for  two  minutes,  when 
it  will  fall  in  again  on  the  other  side  of  the  gate  I" 

Nor  was  it  only  his  ignorance  of  the  manual  which  caused 
him  trouble.  He  was  so  unfamiliar  with  camp  discipline  that 
he  once  had  his  sword  taken  from  him  for  shooting  within 
limits.  Another  disgrace  he  suffered  was  on  account  of  his 
disorderly  company.  The  men,  unknown  to  him,  stole  a  quan- 
tity of  liquor  one  night,  and  the  next  morning  were  too  drunk 
to  fall  in  when  the  order  was  given  to  march.  For  their  law- 
lessness Lincoln  wore  a  wooden  sword  two  days. 

But  none  of  these  small  difficulties  injured  his  standing 
with  the  company.  They  soon  grew  so  proud  of  his  quick 
wit  and  great  strength  that  they  obeyed  him  because  they 
admired  him.  No  amount  of  military  tactics  could  have  se- 
cured from  the  volunteers  the  cheerful  following  he  won  by 
his  personal  qualities. 

The  men  soon  learned,  too,  that  he  meant  what  he  said, 
and  would  permit  no  dishonorable  performances.  A  helpless 
Indian  took  refuge  in  the  camp  one  day;  and  the  men,  who 
were  inspired  by  that  wanton  mixture  of  selfishness,  un- 
reason, and  cruelty  which  seems  to  seize  a  frontiersman  as 
soon  as  he  scents  a  red  man — were  determined  to  kill  the 
refugee.  He  had  a  safe  conduct  from  General  Cass ;  but  the 
men,  having  come  out  to  kill  Indians  and  not  having  suc- 
ceeded, threatened  to  take  revenge  on  the  helpless  savage. 
Lincoln  boldly  took  the  man's  part,  and  though  he  risked  his 
life  in  doing  it,  he  cowed  the  company  and  saved  the  Indian. 

It  was  on  the  27th  of  April  that  the  force  of  sixteen  hun-» 
dred  men  organized  at  Beardstown  started  out.  The  day 
was  cold,  the  roads  heavy,  the  streams  turbulent.  The  army 
marched  first  to  Yellow  Banks  on  the  Mississippi,  then  to 
Dixon  on  the  Rock  river,  which  they  reached  on  May  12. 
At  Dixon  they  camped,  and  near  here  occurred  the  first 
bloodshed  of  the  war. 


78  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

A  body  of  about  three  hundred  and  forty  rangers,  undei 
Major  Stillman,  but  not  of  the  regular  army,  asked  to  go 
ahead  as  scouts,  to  look  for  a  body  of  Indians  under  Black 
Hawk,  rumored  to  be  about  twelve  miles  away.  The 
permission  was  given,  and  on  the  night  of  the  I4th 
of  May,  Stillman  and  his  men  went  into  camp.  Black 
Hawk  heard  of  their  presence.  By  this  time  the  poor 
old  chief  had  discovered  that  the  promises  of  aid 
from  the  Indian  tribes  and  the  British  were  false,  and 
dismayed,  he  had  resolved  to  recross  the  Mississippi. 
When  he  heard  the  whites  were  near  he  sent  three  braves 
with  a  white  flag  to  ask  for  a  parley  and  permission  to  de- 
scend the  river.  Behind  them  he  sent  five  men  to  watch 
proceedings.  Stillman's  rangers  were  in  camp  when  the 
bearers  of  the  flag  of  truce  appeared.  The  men  were  many 
of  them  half  drunk,  and  when  they  saw  the  Indian  truce- 
bearers,  they  rushed  out  in  a  wild  mob,  and  ran  them  into 
camp.  Then  catching  sight  of  the  five  spies,  they 
started  after  them,  killing  two.  The  three  who 
reached  Black  Hawk  reported  that  the  truce-bearers 
had  been  killed  as  well  as  their  two  companions. 
Furious  at  this  violation  of  faith,  Black  Hawk 
"raised  a  yell,"  and  sallied  forth  with  forty  braves  to  meet 
Stillman's  band,  who  by  this  time  were  out  in  search  of  the 
Indians.  Black  Hawk,  too  maddened  to  think  of  the  dif- 
ference of  numbers,  attacked  the  whites.  To  his  surprise 
the  enemy  turned,  and  fled  in  a  wild  riot.  Nor  did  they  stop 
at  the  camp,  which  from  its  position  was  almost  impreg- 
nable ;  they  fled  in  complete  panic,  sauve  qui  peut,  through 
their  camp,  across  prairie  and  rivers  and  swamps,  to  Dixon, 
twelve  miles  away.  The  first  arrival  reported  that  two  thou- 
sand savages  had  swept  down  on  Stillman's  camp  and 
slaughtered  all  but  himself.  Before  the  next  night  all  but 
eleven  of  the  band  had  arrived. 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR  79 

Stillman's  Defeat,  as  this  disgraceful  affair  is  called,  put  all 
notion  of  peace  out  of  Black  Hawk's  mind,  and  he  started 
out  in  earnest  on  the  warpath.  Governor  Reynolds,  excited 
by  the  reports  of  the  first  arrivals  from  the  Stillman  stam- 
pede, made  out  that  night,  "by  candle  light,"  a  call  for  more 
volunteers,  and  by  the  morning  of  the  I5th  had  messengers 
out  and  his  army  in  pursuit  of  Black  Hawk.  But  it  was  like 
pursuing  a  shadow.  The  Indians  purposely  confused  their 
trail.  Sometimes  it  was  a  broad  path,  then  it  suddenly  radi- 
ated to  all  points.  The  whites  broke  their  bands,  and  pur- 
sued the  savages  here  and  there,  never  overtaking  them, 
though  now  and  then  coming  suddenly  on  some  terrible  evi- 
dences of  their  presence — a  frontier  home  deserted  and 
burned,  slaughtered  cattle,  scalps  suspended  where  the  army 
could  not  fail  to  see  them. 

This  fruitless  warfare  exasperated  the  volunteers;  they 
threatened  to  leave,  and  their  officers  had  great  difficulty  in 
making  them  obey  orders.  On  reaching  a  point  in  the  Rock 
river,  beyond  which  lay  the  Indian  country,  a  company 
under  Colonel  Zachary  Taylor  refused  to  cross,  and  held  a 
public  indignation  meeting,  urging  that  they  had  volunteered 
to  defend  the  State,  and  had  the  right,  as  independent  Ameri- 
can citizens,  to  refuse  to  go  out  of  its  borders.  Taylor  heard 
them  to  the  end,  and  then  spoke :  "I  feel  that  all  gentlemen 
here  are  my  equals ;  in  reality,  I  am  persuaded  that  many  of 
them  will,  in  a  few  years,  be  my  superiors,  and  perhaps,  in 
the  capacity  of  members  of  Congress,  arbiters  of  the  fortunes 
and  reputation  of  humble  servants  of  the  republic, 
like  myself.  I  expect  then  to  obey  them  as  interpreters 
of  the  will  of  the  people;  and  the  best  proof  that  I 
will  obey  them  is  now  to  observe  the  orders  of  those  whom 
the  people  have  already  put  in  the  place  of  authority  to  which 
many  gentlemen  around  me  justly  aspire.  In  plain  English, 
gentlemen  and  fellow-citizens,  the  word  has  been  passed  on 


80  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

to  me  from  Washington  to  follow  Black  Hawk  an'd  to  take: 
you  with  me  as  soldiers.  I  mean  to  do  both.  There  are 
the  flatboats  drawn  up  on  the  shore,  and  here  are  Uncle 
Sam's  men  drawn  up  behind  you  on  the  prairie."  The  volun- 
teers knew  true  grit  when  they  met  it  They  dissolved  their 
meeting  and  crossed  the  river  without  Uncle  Sam's  men 
being  called  into  action. 

The  march  in  pursuit  of  the  Indiana  led  the  army  to 
Ottawa,  where  the  volunteers  became  so  dissatisfied  that  on 
May  27  and  28  Governor  Reynolds  mustered  them  out. 
But  a  force  in  the  field  was  essential  until  a  new  levy  was 
raised;  and  a  few  of  the  men  were  patriotic  enough  to  offer 
their  services,  among  them  Lincoln,  who  on  May  29  was 
mustered  in  at  the  mouth  of  the  Fox  river  by  a  man  in  whom, 
thirty  years  later,  he  was  to  have  a  keen  interest — General 
Robert  Anderson,  commander  at  Fort  Sumter  in  1861.  Lin- 
coln became  a  private  in  Captain  Elijah  Iles's  company  of 
Independent  Rangers,  not  brigaded — a  company  made  up, 
says  Captain  lies  in  his  "Footsteps  and  Wanderings,"  of 
"generals,  colonels,  captains,  and  distinguished  men  from 
the  disbanded  army."  General  Anderson  says  that  at  this 
muster  Lincoln's  arms  were  valued  at  forty  dollars,  his  horse 
and  equipment  at  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars.  The  In- 
dependent Rangers  were  a  favored  body,  used  to  carry  mes- 
sages and  to  spy  on  the  enemy.  They  had  no  camp  duties, 
and  "drew  rations  as  often  as  they  pleased."  So  that  as  a 
private  Lincoln  was  really  better  off  than  as  a  captain.* 

The  achievements  and  tribulations  of  this  body  of  rangers 

*William  Cullen  Bryant,  who  was  in  Illinois  in  1832  at  the  time  of 
the  Black  Hawk  War,  used  to  tell  of  meeting  in  his  travels  in  the  State  a 
company  of  Illinois  volunteers,  commanded  by  a  "raw  youth"  of  "quaint 
and  pleasant"  speech,  and  of  learning  afterwards  that  this  captain  was 
Abraham  Lincoln.  As  Lincoln's  captaincy  ended  on  May  27th,  and  Mr. 
Bryant  did  not  reach  Illinois  until  June  I2th,  and  as  he  never  came 
nearer  than  fifty  miles  to  the  Rapids  of  the  Illinois,  where  the  body  of 
rangers  to  which  Lincoln  belonged  was  encamped  it  is  evident  that  the 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR  8l 

to  which  he  belonged  are  told  with  interesting  detail  by  its 
commanding  officer,  Captain  lies,  in  his  "Footsteps  and 
.Wanderings/' 

While  the  other  companies  were  ordered  to  scout  the 
country,  he  writes,  mine  was  held  by  General  Atkin- 
son in  camp  as  a  reserve.  One  company  was  ordered  to  go 
to  Rock  River  (now  Dixon)  and  report  to  Colonel  Taylor 
(afterwards  President)  who  had  been  left  there  with  a  few 
United  States  soldiers  to  guard  the  army  supplies.  The 
place  was  also  made  a  point  of  rendezvous.  Just  as  the  com- 
pany got  to  Dixon,  a  man  came  in,  and  reported  that  he  and 
six  others  were  on  the  road  to  Galena,  and,  in  passing 
through  a  point  of  timber  about  twenty  miles  north  of  Dixon, 
they  were  fired  on  and  six  killed,  he  being  the  only  one  to 
make  his  escape.  .  .  .  Colonel  Taylor  ordered  the  com- 
pany to  proceed  to  the  place,  bury  the  dead,  go  on  to  Galena, 
and  get  all  the  information  they  could  about  the  Indians. 
But  the  company  took  fright,  and  came  back  to  the  Illinois 
river,  helter-skelter. 

General  Atkinson  then  called  on  me,  and  wanted  to  know 
how  I  felt  about  taking  the  trip;  that  he  was  exceedingly 
anxious  to  open  communication  with  Galena,  and  to  find  out, 
if  possible,  the  whereabouts  of  the  Indians  before  the  new 
troops  arrived.  I  answered  the  general  that  myself  and  men 
were  getting  rusty,  and  were  anxious  to  have  something  to 
do,  and  that  nothing  would  please  us  better  than  to  be  or- 
dered out  on  an  expedition ;  that  I  would  find  out  how  many 
of  my  men  had  good  horses  and  were  otherwise  well  equip- 
ped, and  what  time  we  wanted  to  prepare  for  the  trip.  I 
called  on  him  again  at  sunset,  and  reported  that  I  had  about 
fifty  men  well  equipped  and  eager,  and  that  we  wanted  one 
day  to  make  preparations.  He  said  go  ahead,  and  he  would 
prepare  our  orders. 

The  next  day  was  a  busy  one,  running  bullets  and  get- 
ting our  flint-locks  in  order — we  had  no  percussion  locks 
then.  General  Henry,  one  of  my  privates,  who  had  been 
promoted  to  the  position  of  major  of  one  of  the  companies, 

"raw  youth"  could  not  have  been  Lincoln,  much  as  one  would  like  to 
believe  that  it  was. 

(6) 


82  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

volunteered  to  go  witH  us.  I  considered  him  a  host,  as  he 
had  served  as  lieutenant  in  the  War  of  1812,  under  General 
Scott,  and  was  in  the  battle  of  Lundy's  Lane,  and  several 
other  battles.  He  was  a  good  drill  officer,  and  could  aid  me 
much.  .  .  .  After  General  Atkinson  handed  me  my  or- 
ders, and  my  men  were  mounted  and  ready  for  the  «trip,  I 
felt  proud  of  them,  and  was  confident  of  our  success,  al- 
though numbering  only  forty-eight.  Several  good  men 
failed  to  go,  as  they  had  gone  down  to  the  foot  of  the  Illinois 
rapids,  to  aid  in  bringing  up  the  boats  of  army  supplies.  We 
wanted  to  be  as  little  encumbered  as  possible,  and  took  noth- 
ing that  could  be  dispensed  with,  other  than  blankets,  tin 
cups,  coffee-pots,  canteens,  a  wallet  of  bread,  and  some  fat 
side  meat,  which  we  ate  raw  or  broiled. 

When  we  arrived  at  Rock  River,  we  found  Colonel  Tay- 
lor on  the  opposite  side,  in  a  little  fort  built  of  prairie  sod. 
He  sent  an  officer  in  a  canoe  to  bring  me  over.  I  said  to  the 
officer  that  I  would  come  over  as  soon  as  I  got  my  men  in 
camp.  I  knew  of  a  good  spring  half  a  mile  above,  and  I  de- 
termined to  camp  at  it.  After  the  men  were  in  camp  I  called 
on  General  Henry,  and  he  accompanied  me.  On  meeting 
Colonel  Taylor  (he  looked  like  a  man  born  to  command)  he 
seemed  a  little  piqued  that  I  did  not  come  over  and  camp  with 
him.  I  told  him  we  felt  just  as  safe  as  if  quartered  in  his  one- 
horse  fort;  besides,  I  knew  what  his  orders  would  be,  and 
wanted  to  try  the  mettle  of  my  men  before  starting  on  the 
perilous  trip  I  knew  he  would  order.  He  said  the  trip  was 
perilous,  and  that  since  the  murder  of  the  six  men  all  com- 
munications with  Galena  had  been  cut  off,  and  it  might  be 
besieged ;  that  he  wanted  me  to  proceed  to  Galena,  and  that 
he  would  have  my  orders  for  me  in  the  morning,  and  asked 
what  outfit  I  wanted.  I  answered  "Nothing  but  coffee,  side 
meat  and  bread." 

In  the  morning  my  orders  were  to  collect  and  bury  the  re- 
mains of  the  six  men  murdered,  proceed  to  Galena,  make  a 
careful  search  for  the  signs  of  Indians,  and  find  out  whether 
they  were  aiming  to  escape  by  crossing  the  river  below  Gal- 
ena, and  get  all  information  at  Galena  of  their  possible 
whereabouts  before  the  new  troops  were  ready  to  'follow 
them. 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR  83 

John  Dixon,  who  kept  a  house  of  entertainment  here, 
and  had  sent  his  family  to  Galena  for  safety,  joined  us,  and 
hauled  our  wallets  of  corn  and  grub  in  his  wagon,  which  was 
a  great  help.  Lieutenant  Harris,  U.  S.  A.,  also  joined  us. 
I  now  had  fifty  men  to  go  with  me  on  the  march.  I  detailed 
two  to  march  on  the  right,  two  on  the  left,  and  two  in  ad- 
vance, to  act  as  look-outs  to  prevent  a  surprise.  They  were 
to  keep  in  full  view  of  us,  and  to  remain  out  until  we  camped 
for  the  night.  Just  at  sundown  of  the  first  day,  while  we 
were  at  lunch,  our  advance  scouts  came  in  under  whip  and 
reported  Indians.  We  bounced  to  our  feet,  and,  having  a 
full  view  of  the  road  for  a  long  distance,  could  see  a  large 
body  coming  toward  us.  All  eyes  were  turned  to  John 
Dixon,  who,  as  the  last  one  dropped  out  of  sight  coming  over 
a  ridge,  pronounced  them  Indians.  I  stationed  my  men  in  a 
ravine  crossing  the  road,  where  anyone  approaching  could 
not  see  us  until  within  thirty  yards ;  the  horses  I  had  driven 
back  out  of  sight  in  a  valley.  I  asked  General  Henry  to  take 
command.  He  said,  "No;  stand  at  your  post,"  and  walked 
along  the  line,  talking  to  the  men  in  a  low,  calm  voice.  Lieu- 
tenant Harris,  U.  S.  A.,  seemed  much  agitated ;  he  ran  up 
and  down  the  line,  and  exclaimed,  "Captain,  we  will  catch 
hell!"  He  had  horse-pistols,  belt-pistols,  and  a  double-bar- 
reled gun.  He  would  pick  the  flints,  reprime,  and  lay  the 
horse-pistols  at  his  feet.  When  he  got  all  ready  he  passed 
(along  the  line  slowly,  and  seeing  the  nerves  of  the  men  all 
quiet — after  General  Henry's  talk  to  them — said,  "Captain, 
we  are  safe;  we  can  whip  five  hundred  Indians."  Instead  of 
Indians,  they  proved  to  be  the  command  of  General  Dodge, 
from  Galena,  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  men,  en  route,  to  find 
out  what  had  become  of  General  Atkinson's  army,  as,  since 
the  murder  of  the  six  men,  communication  had  been  stopped 
for  more  than  ten  days.  My  look-out  at  the  top  of  the  hill 
did  not  notify  us,  and  we  were  not  undeceived  until  they  got 
within  thirty  steps  of  us.  My  men  then  raised  a  yell  and 
ran  to  finish  their  lunch.  .  .  . 

When  we  got  within  fifteen  miles  of  Galena,  on  Apple 
Creek,  we  found  a  stockade  filled  with  women  and  children 
and  a  few  men,  all  terribly  frightened.  The  Indians  had 
shot  at  and  chased  two  men  that  afternoon,  who  made  their 


84  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

escape  to  the  stockade.  They  insisted  on  our  quartering  in 
the  fort,  but  instead  we  camped  one  hundred  yards  outside, 
and  slept — what  little  sleep  we  did  get — with  our  guns  on  our 
arms.  General  Henry  did  not  sleep,  but  drilled  my  men  all 
night ;  so  the  moment  they  were  called  they  would  bounce  to 
their  feet  and  stand  in  two  lines,  the  front  ready  to  fire,  and 
fall  back  to  reload,  while  the  others  stepped  forward  to  take 
their  places.  They  were  called  up  a  number  of  times,  and  we 
got  but  little  sleep.  We  arrived  at  Galena  the  next  day,  and 
found  the  citizens  prepared  to  defend  the  place.  They  were 
glad  to  see  us,  as  it  had  been  so  long  since  they  had  heard 
from  General  Atkinson  and  his  army.  The  few  Indians 
prowling  about  Galena  and  murdering  were  simply  there  as 
a  ruse. 

On  our  return  from  Galena,  near  the  forks  of  the  Apple 
River  and  Gratiot  roads,  we  could  see  General  Dodge  on  the 
Gratiot  road,  on  his  return  from  Rock  River.  His  six  scouts 
had  discovered  my  two  men  that  I  had  allowed  to  drop  in  the 
rear — two  men  who  had  been  in  Stillman's  defeat,  and,  hav- 
ing weak  horses,  were  allowed  to  fall  behind.  Having  weak 
horses  they  had  fallen  in  the  rear  about  two  miles,  and  each 
took  the  other  to  be  Indians,  and  such  an  exciting  race  I 
never  saw,  until  they  got  sight  of  my  company;  then  they 
came  to  a  sudden  halt,  and  after  looking  -at  Its  a  few  mo- 
ments, wheeled  their  horses  and  gave  up  the  chase.  My  two 
men  did  not  know  but  that  they  were  Indians  until  they 
came  up  with  us  and  shouted  "Indians !"  They  had  thrown 
away  their  wallets  and  guns,  and  used  their  ramrods  as 
whips. 

The  few  houses  on  the  road  that  usually  accommodated 
the  travel  were  all  standing,  but  vacant,  as  we  went.  On 
our  return  we  found  them  burned  by  the  Indians.  On  my 
return  to  the  Illinois  River  I  reported  to  General  Atkinson, 
saying  that,  from  all  we  could  learn,  the  Indians  were  aim- 
ing to  escape  by  going  north,  with  the  intention  of  crossing 
the  Mississippi  river  above  Galena.  The  new  troops  had 
just  arrived  and  were  being  mustered  into  service.  My 
company  had  only  been  organized  for  twenty  days,  and 
as  the  time  had  now  expired,  the  men  were  mustered  out. 
AH  but  myself  again  volunteered  for  the  third  time. 


«Howura 

NCOLN'S  SUPPOSED  LINE  OF 
|URCH  IN  BLACK  HAWK  WAR. 


Data  does  not  exist  for 
determining      positively 
the  route  Lincoln  followed 
in  the  Black  Hawk   War. 
Only  the  general  direct  ion  of 
the  marches  of  his  company 
are  indicated  here.     In  going 
from  Ottawa  to  Galena  and  back 
Captain  lies  may  have  very  well 
marched  his  company  through 
Dixon's  Ferry.    In  returning-  from 
Whitewater  to  New  Salem,  Lincoln 
may  have  followed  the  river  to  Dixon 
There  were  undoubtedly  several  side 
marches  such  as  that  on  June  25,  from 
Dixon  to  Kellogg's  Grove  and  back, 
which  are  not  shown  in  this  map. 


86  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

It  was  the  middle  of  June  when  Captain  lies  and  his  com- 
pany returned  to  Dixon's  Ferry  from  their  Indian  hunt  and 
were  mustered  out.  On  June  20  Lincoln  was  mustered  in 
again,  by  Major  Anderson,  as  a  member  of  an  independent 
company  under  Captain  Jacob  M.  Early.  His  arms  were 
valued  this  time  at  only  fifteen  dollars,  his  horse  and  equip- 
ments at  eighty-five  dollars. 

A  week  after  re-enlistment  Lincoln's  company  moved 
northward  with  the  army.  It  was  time  they  moved,  for 
IBlack  Hawk  was  overrunning  the  country,  and  scattering 
death  wherever  he  went.  The  settlers  were  wild  with  fear, 
and  most  of  the  settlements  were  abandoned.  At  a  sudden 
sound,  at  the  merest  rumor,  men,  women,  and  children  fled. 
"I  well  remember  these  troublesome  times,"  writes  one 
Illinois  woman.  "We  often  left  our  bread  dough  unbaked 
to  rush  to  the  Indian  fort  near  by."  When  Mr.  John  Bry- 
ant, a  brother  of  William  Cullen  Bryant,  visited  the  colony 
in  Princeton  in  1832,  he  found  it  nearly  broken  up  on  account 
of  the  war.  Everywhere  crops  were  neglected,  for  the  able- 
bodied  men  were  volunteering.  William  Cullen  Bryant, 
who,  in  June,  1834,  traveled  on  horseback  from  Peters- 
burg to  near  Pekin  and  back,  wrote  home :  "  Every  few 
miles  on  our  way  we  fell  in  with  bodies  of  Illinois  militia  pro- 
ceeding to  the  American  camp,  or  saw  where  they  had  en- 
camped for  the  night.  They  generally  stationed  themselves 
near  a  stream  or  a  spring  in  the  edge  of  a  wood,  and  turned 
their  horses  to  graze  on  the  prairie.  Their  way  was  barked 
or  girdled,  and  the  roads  through  the  uninhabited  country 
were  as  much  beaten  and  as  dusty  as  the  highways  on  New 
York  island.  Some  of  the  settlers  complained  that  they 
made  war  upon  the  pigs  and  chickens.  They  were  a  hard- 
looking  set  of  men,  unkempt  and  unshaved,  wearing  shirts  of 
dark  calico  and  sometimes  calico  capotes." 

Soon  after  the  army  moved  up  the.  Rock  river,  the  inde- 


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IX 


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THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR  87 

pendent  spy  company,  of  which  Lincoln  was  a  member,  was 
sent  with  a  brigade  to  the  northwest,  near  Galena,  in  pursuit 
of  the  Hawk.  The  nearest  Lincoln  came  to  an  actual 
engagement  in  the  war  was  here.  The  skirmish  of  Kellogg's 
Grove  took  place  on  June  25 ;  Lincoln's  company  came  up 
soon  after  it  was  over,  and  helped  bury  the  five  men  killed. 
It  was  probably  to  this  experience  that  he  referred  when  he 
told  a  friend  once  of  coming  on  a  camp  of  white  scouts  one 
morning  just  as  the  sun  was  rising.  The  Indians  had  sur- 
prised the  camp,  and  had  killed  and  scalped  every  man. 

"I  remember  just  how  those  men  looked,"  said  Lincoln, 
"as  we  rode  up  the  little  hill  where  their  camp  was.  The  red 
light  of  the  morning  sun  was  streaming  upon  them  as  they 
lay  heads  towards  us  on  the  ground.  And  every  man  had  a 
round  red  spot  on  the  top  of  his  head  about  as  big  as  a  dollar, 
where  the  redskins  had  taken  his  scalp.  It  was  frightful, 
but  it  was  grotesque ;  and  the  red  sunlight  seemed  to  paint 
everything  all  over."  Lincoln  paused,  as  if  recalling  the 
vivid  picture,  and  added,  somewhat  irrelevantly,  "I  remem-' 
ber  that  one  man  had  buckskin  breeches  on." 

Early 's  company,  on  returning  from  their  expedition, 
joined  the  main  army  on  its  northward  march.  By  the  end 
of  the  month  the  troops  crossed  into  Michigan  Territory — 
as  Wisconsin  was  then  called — and  July  was  passed  floun- 
dering in  swamps  and  stumbling  through  forests,  in  pursuit 
of  the  now  nearly  exhausted  Black  Hawk.  No  doubt  Early 's 
company  saw  the  hardest  service  on  the  march  for  to  it  was 
allotted  the  scouting.  The  farther  the  army  advanced  the 
more  difficult  was  the  situation.  Finally  the  provisions  gave 
out  and  July  10,  three  weeks  before  the  last  battle  of  the 
war,  that  of  Bad  Axe,  in  which  the  whites  finally  massacred 
most  of  the  Indian  band,  Lincoln's  company  was  disbanded 
at  Whitewater,  Wisconsin,  and  he  and  his  friends  started 
for  home.  The  volunteers  in  returning:  suffered  much  from 


88  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

hunger.  More  than  one  of  them  had  nothing  to  eat  on  the 
journey  except  meal  and  water  baked  in  rolls  of  bark  laid 
by  the  fire.  Lincoln  not  only  went  hungry  on  this  return; 
he  had  to  tramp  most  of  the  way.  The  night  before  his 
company  started  from  Whitewater  he  and  one  of  his  mess- 
mates had  their  horses  stolen;  and,  excepting  when  their 
more  fortunate  companions  gave  them  a  lift,  they  walked  as 
far  as  Peoria,  Illinois,  where  they  bought  a  canoe,  and  pad- 
dled down  the  Illinois  river  to  Havana.  Here  they  sold  the 
canoe,  and  walked  across  the  country  to  New  Salem. 


CHAPTER  VII 

LINCOLN    RUNS    FOR   STATE   ASSEMBLY   AND   IS  DEFEATED—- 
STOREKEEPER  STUDENT POSTMASTER SURVEYOR 

ON  returning  to  New  Salem  Lincoln  at  once  plunged 
into  "electioneering."  He  ran  as  "an  avowed  Clay  man/' 
and  the  country  was  stiffly  Democratic.  However,  in  those 
days  political  contests  were  almost  purely  personal.  If  the 
candidate  was  liked  he  was  voted  for  irrespective  of  prin- 
ciple. 'The  Democrats  of  New  Salem  worked  for  Lincoln 
out  of  their  personal  regard  for  him,"  said  Stephen  T.  Lo- 
gan, a  young  lawyer  of  Springfield,  who  made  Lincoln's  ac- 
quaintance in  the  campaign.  "He  was  as  stiff  as  a  man 
could  be  in  his  Whig  doctrines.  They  did  this  for  him  sim- 
ply because  he  was  popular — because  he  was  Lincoln." 

It  was  the  custom  for  the  candidates  to  appear  at  every 
gathering  which  brought  the  people  out,  and,  if  they  had  a 
chance",  to  make  speeches.  Then,  as  now,  the  farmers  gath- 
ered at  the  county-seat  or  at  the  largest  town  within  their 
reach  on  Saturday  afternoons,  to  dispose  of  produce,  buy 
supplies,  see  their  neighbors,  and  get  the  news.  During 
"election  times"  candidates  were  always  present,  and  a  reg- 
ular feature  of  the  day  was  listening  to  their  speeches.  They 
never  missed  public  sales,  it  being  expected  that  after  the 
"vandoo"  the  candidates  would  take  the  auctioneer's  place. 

Lincoln  let  none  of  these  chances  to  be  heard  slip.  Ac- 
companied by  his  friends,  generally  including  a  few  Clary's 
Grove  Boys,  he  always  was  present.  The  first  speech  he 
made  was  after  a  sale  ajt  Pappsville.  What  he  said  there  is  not 
remembered;  but  an  illustration  of  the  kind  of  man  he  wasf 

8, 


90  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

interpolated  into  his  discourse,  made  a  lasting  impression. 
A  fight  broke  out  in  his  audience  while  he  was  on  the  stand, 
and  observing  that  one  of  his  friends  was  being  worsted,  he 
bounded  into  the  group  of  contestants,  seized  the  fellow  who 
had  his  supporter  down,  threw  him,  according  to  tradition, 
"ten  or  twelve  feet"  mounted  the  platform,  and  finished  the 
speech.  Sangamon  County  could  appreciate  such  a  perform- 
ance ;  and  the  crowd  at  Pappsville  that  day  never  forgot  Lin- 
coln. 

His  visits  to  Springfield  were  ^i  great  importance  to  him. 
Springfield  was  not  at  that  time  a  very  attractive  place. 
Bryant,  visiting  it  in  June,  1832,  said  that  the  houses  were 
not  as  good  as  at  Jacksonville,  "a  considerable  proportion  of 
them  being  log  cabins,  and  the  whole  town  having  an  appear- 
ance of  dirt  and  discomfort."  Nevertheless  it  was  the  largest 
town  in  the  county,  and  among  its  inhabitants  were  many 
young  men  of  breeding,  education,  and  energy.  One  of  these 
men  Lincoln  had  become  well  acquainted  with  in  the  Black 
Hawk  War  * — Major  John  T.  Stuart,  at  that  time  a  lawyer, 
and,  like  Lincoln,  a  candidate  for  the  General  Assembly.  He 
met  others  at  this  time  who  were  to  be  associated  with  him 


There  were  many  prominent  Americans  in  the  Black  Hawk  War, 
with  some  of  whom  Lincoln  became  acquainted.  Among  the  best  known 
were  General  Robert  Anderson ;  Colonel  Zachary  Taylor ;  General  Scott, 
afterwards  candidate  for  President,  and  Lieutenant-General ;  Henry 
Dodge,  Governor  of  the  Territory  of  Wisconsin,  and  United  States 
Senator;  Hon.  William  D.  Ewing  and  Hon.  Sidney  Breese,  both  United 
States  Senators  from  Illinois ;  William  S.  Hamilton,  a  son  of  Alexander 
Hamilton ;  Colonel  Nathan  Boone,  son  of  Daniel  Boone ;  Lieutenant 
Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  afterwards  a  Confederate  General ;  also  Jeffer- 
son Davis,  President  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  Davis  was  at  this 
time  a  lieutenant  stationed  at  Fort  Crawford.  According  to  the  muster 
rolls  of  his  company  he  was  absent  on  furlough  from  March  26  to 
August  18,  1832,  but,  according  to  Davis's  own  statement,  corroborated 
by  many  of  the  early  settlers  of  Illinois  who  served  in  the  Black  Hawk 
War,  Davis  returned  to  duty  as  soon  as  he  found  there  was  to  be  a 
war.  When  Black  Hawk  was  finally  captured  in  August,  after  the 
battle  of  Bad  Axe.he  was  sent  down  the  river  to  Jefferson  Barracks, 
under  the  charge  of  Lieutenant  Jefferson  Davis.  Black  Hawk,  in  his 
"Life,"  speaks  of  Davis  as  a  "good  and  brave  young  chief,  with  whose 
conduct  I  was  much  pleased." 


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FACSIMILE  OF  AN  ELECTION  RETURN  WRITTEN  BY  LINCOLN  AS  CLERK  IN   1832 

From  the  original  now  on  file  in  the  county  clerk's  office,  Springfield,  Iflmois.  The  first  civil  office 
Lincoln  ever  held  was  that  of  election  clerk,  and  the  returns  made  by  him,  of  which  a  facsimile  is  here 
presented,  was  his  first  official  document.  All  the  men  whose  names  appear  on  this  election  return  are 
now  dead,  except  William  McNeely,  now  residing  at  Petersburg.  John  Clary  lived  at  Clary's  Grove; 
John  R.  Herndon  was  "Row"  Herndon,  whose  store  Berry  and  Lincoln  purchased,  and  at  whose  house 
Lincoln  for  a  time  boarded;  Baxter  Berry  was  a  relative  of  Lincoln's  partner  in  the  grocery  business 
and  Edmund  Greer  was  a  school  teacher,  and  afterwards  a  justice  of  the  peace  and  a  surveyor;  Jamea 
Rutledge  was  the  keeper  of  the  Rutledge  tavern  and  the  father  of  Ann  Rutledge;  Hugh  Armstrong  was 
one  of  the  numerous  Armstrong  family;  "Uncle  Jimmy"  White  lived  on  a  farm  five  miles  from  New 
Salem  and  died  about  thirty  years  ago.  in  the  eightieth  year  of  his  age;  William  Green  was  father  of 
William  G.  Greene,  Lincoln's  associate  in  Offutt's  store;  and  as  to  Bowling  Green,  more  is  said  elsewhere. 
In  the  following  three  or  four  years,  very  few  elections  were  held  in  New  Salem  at  which  Lincoln  was  not 
a  clerk.  It  is  a  somewhat  singular  fact  that  Lincoln,  though  clerk  of  this  election,  ia  not  recorded 
as  voting. 


RUNS  FOR  STATE  ASSEMBLY  Ql 

more  or  less  closely  in  the  future  in  both  law  and  politics, 
among  them  Judge  Logan  and  William  Butler.  With  these 
men  the  manners  which  had  won  him  the  day  at  Pappsville 
wefe  of  little  value;  what  impressed  them  was  his  "very  sen- 
sible speech,"  and  his  decided  individuality  and  originality. 

The  election  came  off  on  August  6th.  Lincoln  was  de- 
feated. "This  was  the  only  time  Abraham  was  ever  de- 
feated on  a  direct  vote  of  the  people,"  says  his  autobiographi- 
cal notes.  He  had  a  consolation  in  his  defeat,  however,  for 
in  spite  of  the  pronounced  Democratic  sentiments  of  his  pre- 
cinct, he  received,  according  to  the  official  poll-book  in  the 
county  clerk's  office  at  Springfield,  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  votes  out  of  three  hundred  cast. 

This  defeat  did  not  take  him  out  of  politics.  Six  weeks 
later  he  filled  his  first  civil  office,  that  of  clerk  of  the  Septem- 
ber election.  The  report  in  his  hand  still  exists,  his  first  offi- 
cial document.  In  the  following  years  few  elections  were 
held  in  New  Salem  at  which  Lincoln  did  not  act  as  clerk. 

The  election  over,  Lincoln  began  to  look  for  work.  One 
of  his  friends,  an  admirer  of  his  physical  strength,  advised 
him  to  become  a  blacksmith,  but  it  was  a  trade  which 
afforded  little  leisure  for  study,  and  for  meeting  and  talking 
with  men;  and  he  had  already  resolved,  it  is  evident,  that 
books  and  men  were  essential  to  him.  The  only  employ- 
ment in  New  Salem  which  offered  both  employment  and  the 
opportunities  he  sought,  was  clerking  in  a  store.  Now  the 
stores  in  New  Salem  were  in  more  need  of  customers  than 
of  clerks,  business  having  been  greatly  overdone.  In  the 
fall  of  1832  four  stores  offered  wares  to  the  one  hundred  in- 
habitants of  New  Salem.  The  most  pretentious  was  that  of 
•Hill  and  McNeill,  which  carried  a  large  line  of  dry  goods. 
The  three  others,  owned  respectively  by  the  Herndon  broth- 
ers, Reuben  Radford,  and  James  Rutledge,  were  groceries. 

Failing  to  secure  employment  at  any  of  these  establish- 


92  j,IFE  OP  LINCOLN 

merits,  Lincoln  resolved  to  buy  a  store.  He  was  not  long  in 
finding  an  opportunity  to  purchase.  James  Herndon  had 
already  sold  out  his  half  interest  in  Herndon  Brothers'  store 
to  William  F.  Berry;  and  Rowan  Herndon,  not  getting 
along  well  with  Berry,  was  only  too  glad  to  find  a  purchaser 
of  his  half  in  the  person  of  "Abe"  Lincoln.  Berry  was  as 
poor  as  Lincoln;  but  that  was  not  a  serious  obstacle,  for 
their  notes  were  accepted  for  the  Herndon  stock  of  goods. 
They  had  barely  hung  out  their  sign  when  something  hap- 
pened which  threw  another  store  into  their  hands.  Reuben 
Radford  had  made  himself  obnoxious  to  the  Clary's  Grove 
Boys,  and  one  night  they  broke  in  his  doors  and  windows, 
and  overturned  his  counters  and  sugar  barrels.  It  was  too 
much  for  Radford,  and  he  sold  out  next  day  to  William  G. 
Greene,  for  a  four-hundred-dollar  note  signed  by  Greene. 
At  the  latter's  request,  Lincoln  made  an  inventory  of  the 
stock,  and  offered  him  six  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for  it — 
a  proposition  which  was  cheerfully  accepted.  Berry  and 
Lincoln,  being  unable  to  pay  cash,  assumed  the  four-hun- 
dred-dollar note  payable  to  Radford,  and  gave  Greene  their 
joint  note  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  The  little 
grocery  owned  by  James  Rutledge  was  the  next  to  suc- 
cumb. Berry  and  Lincoln  bought  it  at  a  bargain,  their 
joint  note  taking  the  place  of  cash.  The  three  stocks  were 
consolidated.  Their  aggregate  cost  must  have  been  not 
less  than  fifteen  hundred  dollars.  Berry  and  Lincoln  had 
secured  a  monopoly  of  the  grocery  business  in  New  Salem. 
Within  a  few  weeks  two  penniless  men  had  become  the  pro- 
prietors of  three  stores,  and  had  stopped  buying  only  be- 
cause there  were  no  more  to  purchase. 

But  the  partnership,  it  was  soon  evident,  was  unfortunate. 
Berry,  though  the  son  of  a  Presbyterian  minister,  was 
according  to  tradition  "a  very  wicked  young  man,"  drinking, 
gambling,  and  taking  an  active  part  in  all  the  disturbances 


ITi 

O 
co 


RUNS  FOR  STATE  ASSEMBLY  93 

of  the  neighborhood.  In  spite  of  the  bad  habits  of  his  part- 
ner, Lincoln  left  the  management  of  the  business  largely  to 
him.  It  was  his  love  of  books  which  was  responsible  for 
this  poor  business  management.  He  had  soon  discovered 
that  store-keeping  in  New  Salem,  after  all  duties  were  done, 
left  a  large  amount  of  leisure  on  a  man's  hands.  It  was  his 
chance  to  read,  and  he  scoured  the  town  for  books.  On 
pleasant  days  he  spent  hour  after  hour  stretched  under  a 
tree,  which  stood  just  outside  the  door  of  the  store,  reading 
the  works  he  had  picked  up.  If  it  rained  he  simply  made 
himself  comfortable  on  the  counter  within.  It  was  in  this 
period  that  Lincoln  discovered  Shakespeare  and  Burns.  In 
New  Salem  there  was  one  of  those  curious  individuals,  some- 
times found  in  frontier  settlements,  half  poet,  half  loafer,  in- 
capable of  earning  a  living  in  any  steady  employment,  yet 
familiar  with  good  literature  and  capable  of  enjoying  it — 
Jack  Kelso.  He  repeated  passages  from  Shakespeare  and 
Burns  incessantly,  over  the  odd  jobs  he  undertook,  or  as  he 
idled  by  the  streams — for  he  was  a  famous  fisherman — and 
Lincoln  soon  became  one  of  his  constant  companions.  The 
tastes  he  formed  in  company  with  Kelso  he  retained  through 
life.  • 

It  was  not  only  Burns  and  Shakespeare  that  interfered 
with  the  grocery  keeping;  Lincoln  had  tegun  seriously  to 
read  law.  His  first  acquaintance  with  the  subject,  we  have 
already  seen,  had  been  made  when,  a  mere  lad,  a  copy  of  the 
"Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana'*  had  fallen  into  his  hands. 

But  from  the  time  he  left  Indiana  in  1830  he  had  no  legal 
reading  until  one  day  soon  after  the  grocery  was  started, 
there  happened  one  of  those  trivial  incidents  which  so 
often  turn  the  current  of  a  life.  It  is  best  told  in  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's own  words.*  "One  day  a  man  who  was  migrating  to 

*This  incident  was  told  by  Lincoln  to  Mr.  A.  J.  Conant,  the  artist, 
who  in  1860  painted  his  portrait  in  Springfield.     Mr.  Conant,  in  ord^r 


94  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

the  West  drove  up  in  front  of  my  store  with  a  wagon  which 
contained  his  family  and  household  plunder.  He  asked  me 
if  I  would  buy  an  old  barrel  for  which  he  had  no  room  in  his 
wagon,  and  which  he  said  contained  nothing  of  special  value. 
I  did  not  want  it,  but  to  oblige  him  I  bought  it,  and  paid  him, 
I  think,  half  a  dollar  for  it.  Without  further  examination  I 
put  it  away  in  the  store,  and  forgot  all  about  it.  Some  time 
after,  in  overhauling  things,  I  came  upon  the  barrel,  and 
emptying  it  upon  the  floor  to  see  what  it  contained,  I  found  at 
the  bottom  of  the  rubbish  a  complete  edition  of  Blackstone's 
Commentaries.  I  began  to  read  those  famous  works,  and  I 
had  plenty  of  time ;  for  during  the  long  summer  days,  when 
the  farmers  were  busy  with  their  crops,  my  customers  were 
few  and  far  between.  The  more  I  read" — this  he  said  with 
unusual  emphasis — "the  more  intensely  interested  I  became. 
Never  in  my  whole  life  was  my  mind  so  thoroughly  absorbed. 
I  read  until  I  devoured  them." 

But  all  this  was  fatal  to  business,  and  by  spring  it  was  evi- 
dent that  something  must  be  done  to  stimulate  the  grocery 
sales.  Liquor  selling  was  the  expedient  adopted,  for,  on  the 
6th  of  March,  1833,  the  County  Commissioners'  Court  of 
Sangamon  County  granted  the  firm  of  Berry  and  Lincoln 
a  license  to  keep  a  tavern  at  New  Salem.  It  is  probable  that 
(the  license  was  procured  not  to  enable  the  firm  to  keep  a 
tavern  but  to  retail  the  liquors  which  they  had  in  stock. 
Each  of  the  three  groceries  which  Berry  and  Lincoln  ac- 
quired had  the  usual  supply  of  liquors  and  it  was  only  natural 
that  they  should  seek  a  way  to  dispose  of  the  surplus  quickly 
and  profitably — an  end  Which  could  be  best  accomplished  by 
selling  it  over  the  counter  by  the  glass.  To  do  this  lawfully 

to  catch  Mr.  Lincoln's  pleasant  expression,  had  engaged  him  in  conver- 
sation, and  had  questioned  him  about  his  early  life ;  and  it  was  in  the 
course  of  their  conversation  that  this  incident  came  out.  It  is  to  be  found 
in  a  delightful  and  suggestive  article  entitled,  "My  Acquaintance  with 
Abraham  Lincoln,"  contributed  by  Mr.  Conant  to  the  ''Liber  Scrip- 
torum." 


RUNS  FOR  STATE  ASSEMBLY  95 

required  a  tavern  license ;  and  it  is  a  warrantable  conclusion 
that  such  was  the  chief  aim  of  Berry  and  Lincoln  in  procur- 
ing a  franchise  of  this  character.  We  are  fortified  in  this 
conclusion  by  the  coincidence  that  three  other  grocers  of 
New  Salem  were  among  those  who  took  out  tavern  licenses. 

In  a  community  in  which  liquor  drinking  was  practically 
universal,  at  a  time  when  whiskey  was  as  legitimate  an  arti- 
cle of  merchandise  as  coffee  or  calico,  when  no  family  was 
without  a  jug,  when  the  minister  of  the  gospel  could  take  his 
"dram"  without  any  breach  of  propriety,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  a  reputable  young  man  should  have  been  found  selling 
whiskey.  Liquor  was  sold  at  all  groceries,  but  it  could  not 
be  lawfully  sold  in  a  smaller  quantity  than  one  quart.  The 
law,  however,  was  not  always  rigidly  observed,  and  it  was 
the  custom  of  storekeepers  to  treat  their  patrons. 

The  license  issued  to  Berry  and  Lincoln  read  as  follows : 

Ordered  that  William  F.  Berry,  in  the  name  of  Berry  and 
Lincoln,  have  a  license  to  keep  a  tavern  in  New  Salem  to  con- 
tinue 12  months  from  this  date,  and  that  they  pay  one  dollar 
in  addition  to  the  six  dollars  heretofore  paid  as  per  Treas- 
urer's receipt,  and  that  they  be  allowed  the  following  rates 
(viz.)  : 

French  Brandy  per  J  pt 25 

Peach         "         "     "      i8| 

Apple         "         "     "     12 

Holland  Gin        "     "     i8J 

Domestic  "     "     12! 

Wine  "     " 25" 

Rum  "     "     i8| 

Whiskey  "     "     I2-J 

Breakfast,  dinner  or  supper 25 

Lodging  per  night 12^ 

Horse  per  night 25 

Single  feed \2.\ 

Breakfast,  dinner  or  supper  for  Stage  Passengers 
who  gave  bond  as  required  by  law. 


9&  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

At  the  granting  of  a  tavern  license,  the  applicants  there- 
for were  required  by  law  to  file  a  bond.  The  bond  given  in 
the  case  of  Berry  and  Lincoln  was  as  follows : 

Know  all  men  by  these  presents,  we,  William  F.  Berry, 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  John  Bowling-  Green,  are  held  and 
firmly  bound  unto  the  County  Commissioners  of  Sangamon 
county  in  the  full  sum  of  three  hundred  dollars  to  which 
payment  well  and  truly  to  be  made  we  bind  ourselves,  our 
heirs,  executors  and  administrators  firmly  by  these  presents, 
sealed  with  our  seal  and  dated  this  6th  day  of  March  A.  D. 
1833.  Now  the  condition  of  this  obligation  is  such  that 
Whereas  the  said  Berry  &  Lincoln  has  obtained  a  license 
from  the  County  Commissioners'  Court  to  keep  a  tavern  in 
the  town  of  New  Salem  to  continue  one  year.  Now  if  the 
said  Berry  &  Lincoln  shall  be  of  good  behavior  and  observe 
all  the  laws  of  this  State  relative  to  tavern  keepers — then 
this  obligation  to  be  void  or  otherwise  remain  in  full  force. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN    [Seal" 
WM.  F.  BERRY  [Seaf 

BOWLING  GREEN         [Seal" 

This  bond  appears  to  have  been  written  by  the  clerk  of  the 
Commissioners'  Court;  and  Lincoln's  name  was  signed  by 
some  other  than  himself,  very  likely  by  his  partner 
Berry. 

Business  was  not  so  brisk  in  Berry  and  Lincoln's  gro- 
cery, even  after  the  license  was  granted,  that  the  junior  part- 
ner did  not  welcome  an  appointment  as  postmaster  which  he 
received  in  May,  1833.  The  appointment  of  a  Whig  by  a 
Democratic  administration  seems  to  have  been  made  without 
comment.  "The  office  was  too  insignificant  to  make  his  poli- 
tics an  objection,"  say  his  autobiographical  notes.  The  du- 
ties of  the  new  office  were  not  arduous,  for  letters  were  few, 
and  their  comings  far  between.  At  that  date  the  mails  were 
carried  by  four-horse  post-coaches  from  city  to  city,  and  on 
horseback  from  central  points  into  the  country  towns.  The 


RUNS  FOR  STATE  ASSEMBLY  97 

rates  of  postage  were  high.  A  single-sheet  letter  carried 
thirty  miles  or  under  cost  six  cents;  thirty  to  eighty  miles, 
ten  cents ;  eighty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  twelve  and 
one-half  cents ;  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  four  hundred  miles, 
eighteen  and  one-half  cents;  over  four  hundred  miles, 


FACSIMILE  OF  A  LETTER  WRITTEN  BY  POSTMASTER  LINCOLN 

Reproduced  by  permission  from  "  Menard-Salem-Lincoln  Souvenir  Album.** 
Petersburg,  1893. 

twenty-five  cents.  A  copy  of  one  of  the  popular  magazines 
sent  from  New  York  to  New  Salem  would  have  cost  fully 
twenty-five  cents.  The  mail  was  irregular  in  coming  as  well 
as  light  in  its  contents.  Though  supposed  to  arrive  twice  a 
week,  it  sometimes  happened  that  a  fortnight  or  more  passed 
(7) 


9»  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

without  any  mail.  Under  these  conditions  the  New  Salem 
post-office  was  not  a  serious  care. 

A  large  number  of  the  patron's  of  the  office  lived  in  the 
country — many  of  them  miles  away — and  generally  Lincoln 
delivered  their  letters  at  their  doors.  These  letters  he  would 
carefully  place  in  the  crown  of  his  hat,  and  distribute  them 
from  house  to  house.  Thus  it  was  in  a  measure  true  that  he 
kept  the  New  Salem  post-office  in  his  hat.  The  habit  of  car- 
rying papers  in  his  hat  clung  to  Lincoln;  for,  many  years 
later,  when  he  was  a  practising  lawyer  in  Springfield,  he 
apologized  for  failing  to  answer  a  letter  promptly,  by  ex- 
plaining: "When  I  received  your  letter  I  put  it  in  my  old 
hat,  and  buying  a  new  one  the  next  day,  the  old  one  was  set 
aside,  and  so  the  letter  was  lost  sight  of  for  a  time." 

But  whether  the  mail  was  delivered  by  the  postmaster  him- 
self, or  was  received  at  the  store  it  was  the  habit  "to  stop  and 
visit  awhile."  He  who  received  a  letter  read  it  and  repeated 
the  contents ;  if  he  had  a  newspaper,  usually  the  postmaster 
could  tell  him  in  advance  what  it  contained,  for  one  of  the 
perquisites  of  the  early  post-office  was  the  privilege  of 
reading  all  printed  matter  before  delivering  it.  Every  day, 
then,  Lincoln's  acquaintance  in  New  Salem,  through  his 
position  as  postmaster,  became  more  intimate. 

As  the  summer  of  1833  went  on,  the  condition  of  the  store 
became  more  and  more  unsatisfactory.  As  the  position  of 
postmaster  brought  in  only  a  small  revenue,  Lincoln  was 
forced  to  take  any  odd  work  he  could  get.  He  helped  in 
other  stores  in  the  town,  split  rails,  and  looked  after  the  mill ; 
but  all  this  yielded  only  a  scant  and  uncertain  support,  and 
when  in  the  fall  he  had  an  opportunity  to  learn  surveying,  he 
accepted  it  eagerly. 

The  condition  of  affairs  in  Illinois  in  the  early  thirties 
made  a  demand  for  the  service  of  surveyors.  The  immigra- 
tion had  been  phenomenal.  There  were  thousands  of  farms 


r 


RUNS  FOR  STATE  ASSEMBLY  99 

to  be  surveyed  and  thousands  of  corners  to  be  located. 
Speculators  bought  up  large  tracts  and  mapped  out  cities 
on  paper.  It  was  years  before  the  first  railroad  was  built  in 
Illinois,  and,  as  all  inland  traveling  was  on  horseback  or  in 
the  stage-coach,  earh  year  hundreds  of  miles  of  wagon  roads 
were  opened  through  woods  and  swamps  and  prairies.  As 
the  county  of  Sangamon  was  large,  and  eagerly  sought  by 
immigrants,  the  county  surveyor  in  1833,  one  John  Calhoun, 
needed  deputies ;  but  in  a  country  so  new  it  was  no  easy  mat- 
ter to  find  men  with  the  requisite  capacity. 

With  Lincoln,  Calhoun  had  little,  if  any,  personal  ac- 
quaintance, for  they  lived  twenty  miles  apart.  Lincoln, 
however,  had  made  himself  known  by  his  meteoric  race  for 
the  legislature  in  1832,  and  Calhoun  had  heard  of  him  as  an 
honest,  intelligent,  and  trustworthy  young  man.  One  day 
he  sent  word  to  Lincoln  by  Pollard  Simmons,  who  lived  in 
the  New  Salem  neighborhood,  that  he  had  decided  to  appoint 
him  a  deputy  surveyor  if  he  would  accept  the  position. 

Going  into  the  woods,  Simmons  found  Lincoln  engaged 
in  his  old  occupation  of  making  rails.  The  two  sat  down 
together  on  a  log,  and  Simmons  told  Lincoln  what  Calhoun 
had  said.  Now  Calhoun  was  a  "Jackson  man;"  he  was  for 
Clay.  What  did  he  know  about  surveying,  and  why  should 
a  Democratic  official  offer  him  a  position  of  any  kind  ?  He 
immediately  went  to  Springfield,  and  had  a  talk  with  Cal- 
houn. He  would  not  accept  the  appointment,  he  said,  unless 
he  had  the  assurance  that  it  involved  no  political  obligation, 
and  that  he  might  continue  to  express  his  political  opinions 
as  freely  and  frequently  as  he  chose.  This  assurance  was 
given.  The  only  difficulty  then  in  the  way  was  the  fact  that 
he  knew  absolutely  nothing  of  surveying.  But  Calhoun,  of 
course,  understood  this,  and  agreed  that  he  should  have  time 
to  learn.  ^ 

With  the  promptness  of  action  with  which  he  always  un- 


100  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

dertook  anything  he  had  to  do,  Lincoln  procured  Flint  and 
Gibson's  treatise  on  surveying,  and  sought  Mentor  Graham 
for  help.  At  a  sacrifice  of  some  time,  the  schoolmaster  aided 
him  to  a  partial  mastery  of  the  intricate  subject.  Lincoln 
worked  literally  day  and 'night,  sitting  up  night  after  night 
until  the  crowing  of  the  cock  warned  him  of  the  approaching 
dawn.  So  hard  did  he  study  that  his  friends  were  greatly 
concerned  at  his  haggard  face.  But  in  six  weeks  he  had  mas- 
tered all  the  books  within  reach  relating  to  the  subject — a 
task  which,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  would  hardly 
have  been  achieved  in  as  many  months.  Reporting  to  Cal- 
houn  for  duty  (greatly  to  the  amazement  of  that  gentle- 
man), he  was  at  once  assigned  to  the  territory  in  the  north- 
west part  of  the  county,  and  the  first  work  he  did  of  which 
there  is  any  authentic  record  was  in  January,  1834.  In  that 
month  he  surveyed  a  piece  of  land  for  Russell  Godby,  dating 
the  certificate  January  14,  1834,  and  signing  it  "J.  Calhoun, 
S.  S.  C,  by  A.  Lincoln." 

Lincoln  was  frequently  employed  in  laying  out  public 
roads,  being  selected  for  that  purpose  by  the  County  Com- 
missioners' Court.  So  far  as  can  be  learned  from  the  official 
records,  the  first  road  he  surveyed  was  "from  Musick's  Ferry 
on  Salt  creek,  via  New  Salem,  to  the  county  line  in  the  di- 
rection of  Jacksonville."  For  this  he  was  allowed  fifteen  dol- 
lars for  five  days'  service,  and  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  for 
a  plat  of  the  new  road.  The  next  road  he  surveyed,  accord- 
ing to  the  records,  was  that  leading  from  Athens  to  Sanga- 
mon  town.  This  was  reported  to  the  County  Commissioners' 
Court  November  4,  1834.  But  road  surveying  was  only  a 
small  portion  of  his  work.  He  was  more  frequently  em- 
ployed by  private  individuals. 

According  to  tradition,  when  he  first  took  up  the  business 
he  was  too  poor  to  buy  a  chain,  and,  instead,  used  a  long, 
straight  grape-vine.  Probably  this  is  a  myth,  though  sur- 


RUNS  FOR  STATE  ASSEMBLY  IOI 

veyors  who  had  experience  in  the  early  days  say  it  may  be 
true.  The  chains  commonly  used  at  that  time  were  made  of 
iron.  Constant  use  wore  away  and  weakened  the  links,  and 
it  was  no  unusual  thing  for  a  chain  to  lengthen  six  inches 
after  a  year's  use.  "And  a  good  grape-vine,"  to  use  the  words 
of  a  veteran  surveyor,  "would  give  quite  as  satisfactory  re- 
sults as  one  of  those  old-fashioned  chains." 

Lincoln's  surveys  had  the  extraordinary  merit  of  being 
correct.  Much  of  the  government  work  had  been  rather  in- 
differently done,  or  the  government  corners  had  been  im- 
perfectly preserved,  and  there  were  frequent  disputes  be- 
tween adjacent  land-owners  about  boundary  lines.  Fre- 
quently Lincoln  was  called  upon  in  such  cases  to  find  the  cor- 
ner in  controversy.  His  verdict  was  invariably  the  end  of  the 
dispute,  so  general  was  the  confidence  in  his  honesty  and 
skill.  Some  of  these  old  corners  located  by  him  are  still  in  ex- 
istence. The  people  of  Petersburg  proudly  remember  that 
they  live  in  a  town  which  was  laid  out  by  Lincoln.  This  he 
did  in  1836,  and  it  was  the  work  of  several  weeks. 

Lincoln's  pay  as  a  surveyor  was  three  dollars  a  day,  more 
than  he  had  ever  before  earned.  Compared  with  the  compen- 
sation for  like  services  nowadays  it  seems  small  enough ;  but 
at  that  time  it  was  really  princely.  The  Governor  of  the  State 
received  a  salary  of  only  one  thousand  dollars  a  year,  the 
Secretary  of  State  six  hundred  dollars,  and  good  board  and 
lodging  could  be  obtained  for  one  dollar  a  week.  But  even 
three  dollars  a  day  did  not  enable  him  to  meet  all  his  financial 
obligations.  The  heavy  debts  of  the  store  hung  over  him. 
He  was  obliged  to  help  his  father's  family.  The  long  dis- 
tances he  had  to  travel  in  his  new  employment  had  made  it 
necessary  to  buy  a  horse,  and  for  it  he  had  gone  into  debt. 

"My  father,"  says  Thomas  Watkins,  of  Petersburg,  who 
remembers  the  circumstances  well,  "sold  Lincoln  the  horse, 
and  my  recollection  is  that  Lincoln  agreed  to  pay  him  fifty 


X..          JM  OF   A    REPOBT   OF   A    ROAD    SURVEY   BY    LINCOLN, 


<£ 

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ft 


Va 


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'<AVU*zn^ 


FACSfMIlB   OF   A   MAP   MADE   BY    LINCOLN    OF    ROAD    IN   MENARD    COUNTY,  1XL, 


104  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

dollars  for  it.  Lincoln  was  a  little  slow  in  making  the  pay- 
ments, and  after  he  had  paid  all  but  ten  dollars,  my  father, 
who  was  a  high-strung  man,  became  impatient,  and  sued  him 
for  the  balance.  Lincoln,  of  course,  did  not  deny  the  debt, 
but  raised  the  money  and  paid  it.  I  do  not  often  tell  this,"  Mr. 
Watkins  adds,  * 'because  I  have  always  thought  there  never 
was  such  a  man  as  Lincoln,  and  I  have  always  been  sorry 
father  sued  him." 

Between  his  duties  as  deputy  surveyor  and  postmaster, 
Lincoln  had  little  leisure  for  the  store,  and  its  management 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Berry.  The  stock  of  groceries  was 
on  the  wane.  The  numerous  obligations  of  the  firm  were  ma- 
turing, with  no  money  to  meet  them.  Both  members  of  the 
firm,  in  the  face  of  such  obstacles,  lost  courage;  and  when, 
early  in  1834,  Alexander  and  William  Trent  asked  if  the 
store  was  for  sale,  an  affirmative  answer  was  eagerly  given. 
A  price  was  agreed  upon,  and  the  sale  was  made.  Now, 
neither  Alexander  Trent  nor  his  brother  had  any  money ;  but 
as  Berry  and  Lincoln  had  bought  without  money,  it  seemed 
only  fair  that  they  should  be  willing  to  sell  on  the  same  terms. 
Accordingly  the  notes  of  the  Trent  brothers  were  accepted 
for  the  purchase  price,  and  the  store  was  turned  over  to  the 
new  owners.  But  about  the  time  their  notes  fell  due  the 
Trent  brothers  disappeared.  The  few  groceries  in  the  store 
were  seized  by  creditors,  and  the  doors  were  closed,  never  to 
be  opened  again.  Misfortunes  now  crowded  upon  Lincoln. 
His  late  partner,  Berry,  soon  reached  the  end  of  his  wild  ca- 
reer, and  one  morning  a  farmer  from  the  Rock  Creek  neigh- 
borhood drove  into  New  Salem  with  the  news  that  he  was 
dead. 

The  appalling  debt  which  had  accumulated  was  thrown 
upon  Lincoln's  shoulders.  It  was  then  too  common  a  fashion 
among  men  who  became  deluged  in  debt  to  "clear  out,"  in 
the  expressive  language  of  the  pioneer,  as  the  Trents  had 


RUNS  FOR  STATE  ASSEMBLY  105 

done ;  but  this  was  not  Lincoln's  way.  He  quietly  settled 
down  among  the  men  he  owed,  and  promised  to  pay  them. 
For  fifteen  years  he  carried  this  burden — a  load  which  he 
cheerfully  and  manfully  bore,  but  one  so  heavy  that  he  habit- 
ually spoke  of  it  as  the  "national  debt."  Talking  once  of  it  to 
a  friend,  Lincoln  said :  "That  debt  was  the  greatest  obstacle 
I  have  ever  met  in  life;  I  had  no  way  of  speculating,  and 
could  not  earn  money  except  by  labor,  and  to  earn  by  labor 
eleven  hundred  dollars,  besides  my  living,  seemed  the  work 
of  a  lifetime.  There  was,  however,  but  one  way.  I  went  to 
the  creditors,  and  told  them  that  if  they  would  let  me  alone, 
I  would  give  them  all  I  could  earn  over  my  living,  as  fast  as 
I  could  earn  it."  As  late  as  1848,  so  we  are  informed  by  Mr. 
Herndon,  Mr.  Lincoln,  then  a  member  of  Congress,  sent 
home  money  saved  from  his  salary,  to  be  applied  on  these  ob- 
ligations. All  the  notes,  with  interest  at  the  high  rates  then 
prevailing,  were  at  last  paid. 

With  a  single  exception  Lincoln's  creditors  seemed  to  be 
lenient.  One  of  the  notes  given  by  him  came  into  the  hands 
of  a  Mr.  Van  Bergen,  who,  when  it  fell  due,  brought  suit. 
The  amount  of  the  judgment  was  more  than  Lincoln  could 
pay,  and  his  personal  effects  were  levied  upon.  These  con- 
sisted of  his  horse,  saddle  and  bridle,  and  surveying  instru- 
ments. James  Short,  a  well-to-do  farmer  living  on  Sand 
Ridge,  a  few  miles  north  of  New  Salem,  heard  of  the  trouble 
which  had  befallen  his  young  friend.  Without  advising  Lin- 
coln of  his  plans,  he  attended  the  sale,  bought  in  the  horse 
and  surveying  instruments  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  dol- 
lars, and  turned  them  over  to  their  former  owner. 

Lincoln  never  forgot  a  benefactor.  He  not  only  repaid  the 
money  with  interest,  but  nearly  thirty  years  later  remem- 
bered the  kindness  in  a  most  substantial  way.  After  Lincoln 
left  New  Salem  financial  reverses  came  to  James  Short,  and 
he  removed  to  the  far  West  to  seek  his  fortune  anew.  Early 


106  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

in  Lincoln's  presidential  term  he  heard  that  "Uncle  Jimmy" 
was  living  in  California.  One  day  Mr.  Short  received  a  let- 
ter from  Washington,  D.  C.  Tearing  it  open,  he  read  the 
gratifying  announcement  that  he  had  been  commissioned  an 
Indian  agent. 

The  kindness  of  Mr.  Short  was  not  exceptional  in  Lin- 
coln's New  Salem  career.  When  the  store  had  "winked  out," 
as  he  put  it,  and  the  post-office  had  been  left  without  head- 
quarters, one  of  his  neighbors,  Samuel  Hill,  invited  the 
homeless  postmaster  into  his  store.  There  was  hardly  a  man 
or  woman  in  the  community  who  would  not  have  been  glad 
to  have  done  as  much.  It  was  a  simple  recognition  on  their 
part  of  Lincoln's  friendliness  to  them.  He  was  what  they 
called  "obliging" — a  man  who  instinctively  did  the  thing 
which  he  saw  would  help  another,  no  matter  how  trivial  or 
homely  it  was.  In  the  home  of  Rowan  Herndon,  where  he 
had  boarded  when  he  first  came  to  the  town,  he  had  made 
himself  loved  by  his  care  of  the  children.  "He  nearly  always 
had  one  of  them  around  with  him,"  says  Mr.  Herndon.  In 
the  Rutledge  tavern,  where  he  afterwards  lived,  the  landlord 
told  with  appreciation  how,  when  his  house  was  full,  Lincoln 
gave  up  his  bed,  went  to  the  store,  and  slept  on  the  counter, 
his  pillow  a  web  of  calico.  If  a  traveler  "stuck  in  the  mud" 
in  New  Salem's  one  street,  Lincoln  was  always  the  first  to 
help  pull  out  the  wheel.  The  widows  praised  him  because  he 
"chopped  their  wood;"  the  overworked,  because  he  was  al- 
ways ready  to  give  them  a  lift.  It  was  the  spontaneous,  un- 
obtrusive helpfulness  of  the  man's  nature  which  endeared 
him  to  everybody  and  which  inspired  a  general  desire  to  do 
all  possible  in  return.  There  are  many  tales  told  of  homely 
service  rendered  him,  even  by  the  hard-working  farmers' 
wives  around  New  Salem.  There  was  not  one  of  them  who 
did  not  gladly  "put  on  a  plate"  for  Abe  Lincoln  when  He  ap- 
peared, or  would  not  darn  or  mend  for  himjwhen  she  knew 


THE   STATE-HOUSE   AT   VANDALIA,    ILLINOIS — NOW   USED   AS   A   COURT-HOUSE. 


LINCOLN'S  SURVEYING  INSTRUMENTS. 


RUNS  FOR  STATE  ASSEMBLY  IOJ 

he  needed  it.  Hannah1  Armstrong,  the  wife  of  the  hero  of 
Clary's  Grove,  made  him  one  of  her  family.  "Abe  would 
come  out  to  our  house/'  she  said,  "drink  milk,  eat  mush, 
cornbread  and  butter,  bring  the  children  candy,  and  rock  the 
cradle  while  I  got  him  something  to  eat.  .  .  .  Has  stayed 
at  our  house  two  or  three  weeks  at  a  time."  Lincoln's  pay 
for  his  first  piece  of  surveying  came  in  the  shape  of  two  buck- 
skins, and  it  was  Hannah  who  "foxed"  them  on  his  trousers. 
His  relations  were  equally  friendly  in  the  better  homes  of 
the  community;  even  at  the  minister's,  the  Rev.  John  Cam- 
eron's, he  was  perfectly  at  home,  and  Mrs.  Cameron  was  by 
him  affectionately  called  "Aunt  Polly."  It  was  not  only  his 
kindly  service  which  made  Lincoln  loved;  it  was  his  sym- 
pathetic comprehension  of  the  lives  and  joys  and  sorrows  and 
interests  of  the  people.  .Whether  it  was  Jack  Armstrong  and 
his  wrestling,  Hannah  and  her  babies,  Kelso  and  his  fishing 
and  poetry,  the  school-master  and  his  books — with  one  and 
all  he  was  at  home.  He  possessed  in  an  extraordinary  degree 
the  power  of  entering  into  the  interests  of  others,  a  power 
found  only  in  reflective,  unselfish  natures  endowed  with  a 
humorous  sense  of  human  foibles,  coupled  with  great  tender- 
ness of  heart.  Men  and  women  amused  Lincoln,  but  so  long 
as  they  were  sincere  he  loved  them  and  sympathized  with 
them.  He  was  human  in  the  best  sense  of  that  fine  word. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ELECTIONEERING  IN  ILLINOIS  IN  1834 — LINCOLN  READS  LAW 

— FIRST  TERM  AS  ASSEMBLYMAN LINCOLN^  FIRST  GREAT 

SORROW 

Now  that  the  store  was  closed  and  his  surveying  increased, 
Lincoln  had  an  excellent  opportunity  to  extend  his  acquaint- 
ance by  traveling  about  the  country.  Everywhere  he  won 
friends.  The  surveyor  naturally  was  respected  for  his  call- 
ing's sake,  but  the  new  deputy  surveyor  was  admired  for  his 
friendly  ways,  his  willingness  to  lend  a  hand  indoors  as  well 
as  out,  his  learning,  his  ambition,  his  independence. 
Throughout  the  county  he  began  to  be  regarded  as  a  "right 
smart  young  man."  Some  of  his  associates  appear  even  to 
have  comprehended  his  peculiarly  great  character  and  dimly 
to  have  foreseen  a  splendid  future.  "Often,"  says  Daniel 
Green  Burner,  at  one  time  clerk  in  Berry  and  Lincoln's  gro- 
cery, "I  have  heard  my  brother-in-law,  Dr.  Duncan,  say  he 
would  not  be  surprised  if  some  day  Abe  Lincoln  got  to  be 
governor  of  Illinois.  Lincoln,"  Mr.  Burner  adds,  "was 
thought  to  know  a  little  more  than  anybody  else  among  the 
young  people.  He  was  a  good  debater,  and  liked  it.  He  read 
much,  and  seemed  never  to  forget  anything." 

Lincoln  was  fully  conscious  of  his  popularity,  and  it 
seemed  to  him  in  1834  that  he  could  safely  venture  to  try 
again  for  the  legislature.  Accordingly  he  announced  himself 
as  a  candidate,  spending  much  of  the  summer  of  1834  in  elec- 
tioneering. It  was  a  repetition  of  what  he  had  done  in  1832, 
though  on  the  larger  scale  made  possible  by  wider  acquaint- 
ance. In  company  with  the  other  candidates  he  rode  up  and 

xo* 


BOWLING   GREEN'S   HOUSE. 

Bowling  Green's  log  cabin,  half  a  mile  north  of  New  Salem,  just  under  the  bluff,  still  stands, 
but  long  since  ceased  to  be  a  dwelling-house,  and  is  now  a  tumble-down  old  stable.  Here  Lincoln 
was  a  frequent  boarder,  especially  during  the  period  of  his  closest  application  to  the  study  of  the 
Jaw.  Stretched  out  on  the  cellar  door  of  his  cabin,  reading  a  book,  he  met  for  the  first  time 
"Dick"  Yates,  then  a  college  student  at  Jacksonville,  and  destined  to  become  the  great  "War 
Governor"  of  the  State.  Yates  had  come  home  with  William  G.  Greene  to  spend  his  vacation, 
and  Greene  took  him  around  to  Bowling  Green's  house  to  introduce  him  to  "  his  friend  Abe  Lin- 
coln." Unhappily  there  is  nowhere  in  existence  a  picture  of  the  original  occupant  of  this  humble 
cabin.  Bowling  Green  was  one  of  the  leading  citizens  of  the  county.  He  was  County  Commis- 
sioner from  1826  to  1828;  he  was  for  many  years  a  justice  of  the  peace;  he  was  a  prominent 
member  of  the  Masonic  fraternity,  and  a  very  active  and  uncompromising  Whig.  The  friend- 
ship between  him  and  Lincoln,  beginning  at  a  very  early  day,  continued  until  his  death  in  1842. 

J.  McCan  Davis. 


ELECTIONEERING  IN  ILLINOIS*  109 

down  the  county,  making  speeches  in  the  public  squares,  in 
shady  groves,  now  and  then  in  a  log  school-house.  In  his 
speeches  he  soon  distinguished  himself  by  the  amazing  can- 
dor with  which  he  dealt  with  all  questions,  and  by  his  curious 
blending  of  audacity  and  humility.  Wherever  he  saw  a 
crowd  of  men  he  joined  them,  and  he  never  failed  to  adapt 
himself  to  their  point  of  view  in  asking  for  votes.  If  the  de- 
gree of  physical  strength  was  their  test  for  a  candidate,  he 
was  ready  to  lift  a  weight,  or  wrestle  with  the  countryside 
champion ;  if  the  amount  of  grain  a  man  could  cut  would  rec- 
ommend him,  he  seized  the  cradle  and  showed  the  swath  he 
could  cut.  The  campaign  was  well  conducted,  for  in  August 
he  was  elected  one  of  the  four  assemblymen  from  Sanga- 
mon. 

The  best  thing  which  Lincoln  did  in  the  canvass  of  1834 
was  not  winning  votes ;  it  was  coming  to  a  determination  to 
read  law,  not  for  pleasure,  but  as  a  business.  In  his  autobi- 
ographical notes  he  says :  "During  the  canvass,  in  a  private 
conversation,  Major  John  T.  Stuart  (one  of  his  fellow-candi- 
dates) encouraged  Abraham  to  study  law.  After  the  election 
he  borrowed  books  of  Stuart,  took  them  home  with  him  and 
went  at  it  in  good  earnest.  He  never  studied  with  anybody." 
He  seems  to  have  thrown  himself  into  the  work  with  almost 
impatient  ardor.  As  he  tramped  back  and  forth  from  Spring- 
field, twenty  miles  away,  to  get  his  law  books,  he  read  some- 
times forty  pages  or  more  on  the  way.  Often  he  was  seen 
wandering  at  random  across  the  fields,  repeating  aloud  the 
points  in  his  last  reading.  The  subject  seemed  never  to  be 
out  of  his  mind.  It  was  the  great  absorbing  interest  of  his 
life.  The  rule  he  gave  twenty  years  later  to  a  young  man  who 
wanted  to  know  how  to  become  a  lawyer,  was  the  one  he 
practiced : 

"Get  books  and  read  and  study  them  carefully.  Begin  with 
Blackstone's  'Commentaries/  and  after  reading:  carefully 


1 10  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

through,  say  twice,  take  Chitty's  'Pleadings/  Greenleaf's 
'Evidence/  and  Story's  'Equity/  in  succession.  Work,  work, 
work  is  the  main  thing." 

Having  secured  a  book  of  legal  forms,  he  was  soon  able  to 
write  deeds,  contracts,  and  all  sorts  of  legal  instruments ;  and 
he  was  frequently  called  upon  by  his  neighbors  to  perform 
services  of  this  kind.  "In  1834,"  says  Daniel  Green  Burner, 
"my  father,  Isaac  Burner,  sold  out  to  Henry  Onstott,  and  he 
wanted  a  deed  written.  I  knew  how  handy  Lincoln  was  that 
way  and  suggested  that  we  get  him.  We  found  him  sitting 
on  a  stump.  'All  right/  said  he,  when  informed  what  we 
wanted.  'If  you  will  bring  me  a  pen  and  ink  and  a  piece  of 
paper  I  will  write  it  here/  I  brought  him  these  articles,  and, 
picking  up  a  shingle  and  putting  it  on  his  knee  for  a  desk,  he 
wrote  out  the  deed." 

As  there  was  no  practising  lawyer  nearer  than  Springfield, 
Lincoln  was  often  employed  to  act  the  part  of  advocate  be- 
fore the  village  squire,  at  that  time  Bowling  Green.  He  real- 
ized that  this  experience  was  valuable,  and  never,  so  far  as 
known,  demanded  or  accepted  a  fee  for  his  services  in  these 
petty  cases. 

Justice  was  sometimes  administered  in  a  summary  way  in 
Squire  Green's  court.  Precedents  and  the  venerable  rules  of 
law  had  little  weight.  The  "Squire"  took  judicial  notice  of  a 
great  many  facts,  often  going  so  far  as  to  fill,  simultane- 
ously, the  two  functions  of  witness  and  court.  But  his  deci- 
sions were  generally  just. 

James  McGrady  Rutledge  tells  a  story  in  which  several  of 
Lincoln's  old  friends  figure  and  which  illustrates  the  legal 
practices  of  New  Salem.  "Jack  Kelso,"  says  Mr.  Rutledge, 
"owned,  or  claimed  to  own,  a  white  hog.  It  was  also  claimed 
by  John  Ferguson.  The  hog  had  wandered  around  Bowling 
Green's  place,  until  he  felt  somewhat  acquainted  with  it. 
Ferguson  sued  Kelso,  and  the  case  was  tried  before  'Squire' 


ELECTIONEERING  IN  ILLINOIS  III 

Green.  The  plaintiff  produced  two  witnesses  who  testified 
positively  that  the  hog  belonged  to  him.  Kelso  had  nothing 
to  offer,  save  his  own  unsupported  claim. 

"  'Are  there  any  more  witnesses  ?'  inquired  the  court. 

"He  was  informed  that  there  were  no  more. 

"  'Well/  said  'Squire'  Green,  'the  two  witnesses  we  have 

heard  have  sworn  to  a lie.  I  know  this  shoat,  and  I 

know  it  belongs  to  Jack  Kelso.  I  therefore  decide  this  case 
in  his  favor/  " 

An  extract  from  the  record  of  the  County  Commissioners' 
Court  illustrates  the  nature  of  the  cases  that  came  before  the 
justice  of  the  peace  in  Lincoln's  day.  It  also  shows  the  price 
put  upon  the  privilege  of  working  on  Sunday,  in  1832 : 

"JANUARY  29,  1832. — Alexander  Gibson  found  guilty  of 
Sabbath-breaking  and  fined  I2-J  cents.   Fine  paid  into  court. 
"(Signed)  EDWARD  ROBINSON,  J.  P." 

The  session  of  the  Ninth  Assembly  began  December  i, 
1834,  and  Lincoln  went  to  the  capital,  then  Vandalia,  sev- 
enty-five miles  southeast  of  New  Salem,  on  the  Kaskaskia 
river,  in  time  for  the  opening.  Vandalia  was  a  town  which 
had  been  called  into  existence  in  1820  especially  to  give  the 
State  government  an  abiding  place.  Its  very  name  had  been 
chosen,  it  is  said,  because  it  "sounded  well"  for  a  State  capi- 
tal. As  the  tradition  goes,  while  the  commissioners  were  de- 
bating what  they  should  call  the  town  they  were  making,  a 
wag  suggested  that  it  be  named  Vandalia,  in  honor  of  the 
Vandals,  a  tribe  of  Indians  which,  he  said,  had  once  lived  on 
the  borders  of  the  Kaskaskia;  this,  he  argued,  would  con- 
serve a  local  tradition  while  giving  a  euphonious  title.  The 
commissioners,  pleased  with  so  good  a  suggestion,  adopted 
the  name.  When  Lincoln  first  went  to  Vandalia  it  was  a 
town  of  about  eight  hundred  inhabitants;  its  noteworthy 


H2  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

features,  according  to  Peck's  "Gazetteer"  of  Illinois  for 
1834,  being  a  brick  court-house,  a  two-story  brick  edifice 
"used  by  State  officers,"  "a  neat  framed  house  of  worship  for 
the  Presbyterian  Society,  with  a  cupola  and  bell,"  "a  framed 
meeting-house  for  the  Methodist  Society,"  three  taverns, 
several  stores,  five  lawyers,  four  physicians,  a  land  office,  and 
two  newspapers.  It  was  a  much  larger  town  than  Lincoln 
had  ever  lived  in  before,  though  he  was  familiar  with  Spring- 
field, then  twice  as  large  as  Vandalia,  and  he  had  seen  the 
cities  of  the  Mississippi. 

The  Assembly  which  he  entered  was  composed  of  eighty^ 
one  members — twenty-six  senators  and  fifty-five  repre- 
sentatives. As  a  rule,  these  men  were  of  Kentucky,  Tennes- 
see, or  Virginia  origin,  with  here  and  there  a  Frenchman. 
There  were  but  few  eastern  men,  for  there  was  still  a  strong 
prejudice  in  the  State  against  Yankees.  The  close  bargains 
and  superior  airs  of  the  emigrants  from  New  England  con- 
trasted so  unpleasantly  with  the  open-handed  hospitality  and 
the  easy  ways  of  the  Southerners  and  French,  that  a  pio- 
neer's prospects  were  blasted  at  the  start  if  he  acted  like  a 
Yankee.  A  history  of  Illinois  in  1837,  published  evidently  to 
"boom"  the  State,  cautioned  the  emigrant  that  if  he  began 
his  life  in  Illinois  by  "affecting  superior  intelligence  and 
virtue,  and  catechizing  the  people  for  their  habits  of  plain- 
ness and  simplicity  and  their  apparent  want  of  those  things 
which  he  imagines  indispensable  to  comfort,"  he  must  expect 
to  be  forever  marked  as  "a  Yankee,"  and  to  have  his  pros- 
pects correspondingly  defeated.  A  "hard-shell"  Baptist 
preacher  of  about  this  date  showed  the  feeling  of  the  people 
when  he  said,  in  preaching  of  the  richness  of  the  grace  of  the 
Lord :  "It  tuks  in  the  isles  of  the  sea  and  the  uttermust  part 
of  the  yeth.  It  embraces  the  Esquimaux  and  the  Hottentots, 
and  some,  my  dear  brethering,  go  so  far  as  to  suppose  that  it 
tuks  in  the  poor  benighted  Yankees,  but  /  don't  go  that  fur.'9 


ELECTIONEERING   IN   ILLINOIS  113 

When  it  came  to  an  election  of  legislators,  many  of  the  peo- 
ple "didn't  go  that  fur"  either. 

There  was  a  preponderance  of  jean  suits  like  Lincoln's  in 
the  Assembly,  and  there  were  occasional  coonskin  caps  and 
buckskin  trousers.  Nevertheless,  more  than  one  member 
showed  a  studied  garb  and  a  courtly  manner.  Some  of  thr 
best  blood  of  the  South  went  into  the  making  of  Illinois,  and 
it  showed  itself  from  the  first  in  the  Assembly.  The  sur- 
roundings of  the  legislators  were  quite  as  simple  as  the  attire 
of  the  plainest  of  them.  The  court-house,  in  good  old 
Colonial  style,  with  square  pillars  and  belfry,  was  finished 
with  wooden  desks  and  benches.  The  State  furnished  her 
law-makers  few  perquisites  beyond  their  three  dollars  a  day. 
A  cork  inkstand,  a  certain  number  of  quills,  and  a  limited 
amount  of  stationery  were  all  the  extras  an  Illinois  legislator 
in  1834  got  from  his  position.  Scarcely  more  could  be  ex- 
pected from  a  State  whose  revenues  from  December  i,  1834, 
to  December  i,  1836,  were  only  about  one  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-five thousand  dollars,  with  expenditures  during  the  same 
period  amounting  to  less  than  one  hundred  and  sixty-five 
thousand  dollars. 

Lincoln  thought  little  of  these  things,  no  doubt.  To  him 
the  absorbing  interest  was  the  men  he  met.  To  get  ac- 
quainted with  them,  measure  them,  compare  himself  with 
them,  and  discover  wherein  they  were  his  superiors  and  what 
he  could  do  to  make  good  his  deficiency — this  was  his  chief 
occupation.  The  men  he  met  were  good  subjects  for  such 
study.  Among  them  were  William  L.  D.  Ewing,  Jesse  K. 
Dubois,  Stephen  T.  Logan,  Theodore  Ford,  and  Governor 
Duncan — men  destined  to  play  large  parts  in  the  history  of 
the  State.  One  whom  he  met  that  winter  in  Vandalia  was 
destined  to  play  a  great  part  in  the  history  of  the  nation — the 
Democratic  candidate  for  the  office  of  State  attorney  for  the 
first  judicial  district  of  Illinois;  a  man  four  years  younger 


114  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

than  Lincoln — he  was  only  twenty-one  at  the  time;  a  new- 
comer, too,  in  the  State,  having  arrived  about  a  year  before, 
under  no  very  promising  auspices  either,  for  he  had  only 
thirty-seven  cents  in  his  pockets,  and  no  position  in  view ;  but 
a  man  of  mettle,  it  was  easy  to  see,  for  already  he  had  risen  so 
high  in  the  district  where  he  had  settled,  that  he  dared  con- 
test the  office  of  State  attorney  with  John  J.  Hardin,  one  of 
the  most  successful  lawyers  of  the  State.  This  young  man 
was  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  He  had  come  to  Vandalia  from 
Morgan  county  to  conduct  his  campaign,  and  Lincoln  met 
him  first  in  the  halls  of  the  old  court-house,  where  he  and 
his  friends  carried  on  with  success  their  contest  against 
Hardin. 

The  ninth  Assembly  gathered  in  a  more  hopeful  and  am- 
bitious mood  than  any  of  its  predecessors.  Illinois  was  feel- 
ing well.  The  State  was  free  from  debt.  The  Black  Hawk 
war  had  stimulated  the  people  greatly,  for  it  had  brought  a 
large  amount  of  money  into  circulation.  In  fact,  the  greater 
portion  of  the  eight  to  ten  million  dollars  the  war  had  cost, 
had  been  circulated  among  the  Illinois  volunteers.  Immigra- 
tion, too,  was  increasing  at  a  bewildering  rate.  In  1835  the 
census  showed  a  population  of  269,974.  Between  1830  and 
1835  two-fifths  of  this  number  had  come  in.  In  the  northeast 
Chicago  had  begun  to  rise.  "Even  for  a  western  town,"  its 
growth  had  been  unusually  rapid,  declared  Peck's  "Gazet- 
teer," of  1834;  the  harbor  building  there,  the  proposed  Michi- 
gan and  Illinois  canal,  the  rise  in  town  lots — all  promised  to 
the  State  a  great  metropolis.  To  meet  the  rising  tide  of 
prosperity,  the  legislators  of  1834  felt  that  they  must  devise 
some  worthy  scheme,  so  they  chartered  a  new  State  bank, 
with  a  capital  of  one  million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
and  revived  a  bank  which  had  broken  twelve  years  before, 
granting  it  a  charter  of  three  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
There  was  no  surplus  money  in  the  State  to  supply  the  capi- 


ELECTIONEERING  IN  ILLINOIS  US 

tal;  there  were  no  trained  bankers  to  guide  the  concern; 
there  was  no  clear  notion  of  how  it  was  all  to  be  done ;  but  a 
banking  capital  of  one  million  eight  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars would  be  a  good  thing  in  the  State,  they  were  sure ;  and 
if  the  East  could  be  made  to  believe  in  Illinois  as  much  as  her 
legislators  believed  in  her,  the  stocks  would  go;  and  so  the 
banks  were  chartered. 

But  even  more  important  to  the  State  than  banks  was  a 
highway.  For  thirteen  years  plans  for  the  Illinois  and  Michi- 
gan canal  had  been  constantly  before  the  Assembly.  Sur- 
veys had  been  ordered,  estimates  reported,  the  advantages 
extolled,  but  nothing  had  been  done.  Now,  however,  the 
Assembly,  flushed  by  the  first  thrill  of  the  coming  boom, 
decided  to  authorize  a  loan  of  a  half-million  on  the  credit  of 
the  State.  Lincoln  favored  both  these  measures.  He  did 
not,  however,  do  anything  especially  noteworthy  for  either 
of  the  bills,  nor  was  the  record  he  made  in  other  directions 
at  all  remarkable.  He  was  placed  on  the  committee  of  pub- 
lic accounts  and  expenditures,  and  attended  meetings  with 
fidelity.  His  first  act  as  a  member  was  to  give  notice  that  he 
would  ask  leave  to  introduce  a  bill  limiting  the  jurisdiction 
of  justices  of  the  peace — a  measure  which  he  succeeded  in 
carrying  through.  He  followed  this  by  a  motion  to  change 
the  rules,  so  that  it  should  not  be  in  order  to  offer  amend- 
ments to  any  bill  after  the  third  reading,  which  was  not 
agreed  to ;  though  the  same  rule,  in  effect,  was  adopted  some 
years  later,  and  is  to  this  day  in  force  in  both  branches  of  the 
Illinois  Assembly.  He  next  made  a  motion  to  take  from  the 
table  a  report  which  had  been  submitted  by  his  committee, 
which  met  a  like  fate.  His  first  resolution,  relating  to  a 
State  revenue  to  be  derived  from  the  sales  of  the  public  lands, 
was  denied  a  reference,  and  laid  upon  the  table.  Neither 
as  a  speaker  nor  an  organizer  did  he  make  any  especial  im- 
pression on  the  body. 


Ii6  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

In  the  spring  of  1835  the  young  representative  from  San- 
gamon  returned  to  New  Salem  to  take  up  his  duties  as  post- 
master and  deputy  surveyor,  and  to  resume  his  law  studies. 
He  exchanged  his  rather  exalted  position  for  the  humbler 
one  with  a  light  heart.  New  Salem  held  all  that  was  dear- 
est in  the  world  to  him  at  that  moment,  and  he  went  back 
to  the  poor  little  town  with  a  hope,  which  he  had  once  sup- 
posed honor  forbade  his  acknowledging  even  to  himself, 
glowing  warmly  in  his  heart.  He  loved  a  young  girl  of  that 
town,  and  now  for  the  first  time,  though  he  had  known  her 
since  he  first  came  to  New  Salem,  was  he  free  to  tell  his  love. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  families  of  the  settlement  in 
1831,  when  Lincoln  first  appeared  there,  was  that  of  James 
Rutledge.  The  head  of  the  house  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  New  Salem,  and  at  that  time  the  keeper  of  the  village 
tavern.  He  was  a  high-minded  man,  of  a  warm  and  gener- 
ous nature,  and  had  the  universal  respect  of  the  community. 
He  was  a  South  Carolinian  by  birth,  but  had  lived  many 
years  in  Kentucky  before  coming  to  Illinois.  Rutledge  came 
of  a  distinguished  family:  one  of  his  ancestors  signed  the 
Declaration  of  Independence ;  another  was  chief  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  by  appointment  of 
Washington,  and  another  was  a  conspicuous  leader  in  the 
American  Congress. 

The  third  of  the  nine  children  in  the  Rutledge  household 
was  a  daughter,  Ann  Mayes,  born  in  Kentucky,  January  7, 
1813.  When  Lincoln  first  met  her  she  was  nineteen  years 
old,  and  as  fresh  as  a  flower.  Many  of  those  who  knew  her 
at  that  time  have  left  tributes  to  her  beauty  and  gentleness, 
and  even  to-day  there  are  those  living  who  talk  of  her  with 
moistened  eyes  and  softened  tones.  "She  was  a  beautiful 
girl,"  says  her  cousin,  James  McGrady  Rutledge,  "and  as 
bright  as  she  was  beautiful.  She  was  well  educated  for  that 
early  day,  a  good  conversationalist,  and  always  gentle  and 


ELECTIONEERING  IN  ILLINOIS  117 

cheerful.  A  girl  whose  company  people  liked."  So  fair  a 
maid  was  not,  of  course,  without  suitors.  The  most  deter- 
mined of  those  who  sought  her  hand  was  one  John  McNeill, 
a  young  man  who  had  arrived  in  New  Salem  from  New 
York  soon  after  the  founding  of  the  town.  Nothing  was 
known  of  his  antecedents,  and  no  questions  were  asked.  He 
was  understood  to  be  merely  one  of  the  thousands  who  had 
come  west  in  search  of  fortune.  That  he  was  intelligent, 
industrious,  and  frugal,  with  a  good  head  for  business,  was 
at  once  appai-mt;  for  in  four  years  from  his  first  appearance 
in  the  settlement,  besides  earning  a  half-interest  in  a  general 
store,  McNeill  had  acquired  a  large  farm  a  few  miles  north 
of  New  Salem.  His  neighbors  believed  him  to  be  worth 
about  twelve  thousand  dollars. 

John  McNeill  was  an  unmarried  man — at  least  so  he  repre- 
sented himself  to  be — and  very  soon  after  becoming  a  resi- 
dent of  New  Salem  he  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Ann  Rut- 
ledge,  then  a  girl  of  seventeen.  It  was  a  case  of  love  at  first 
sight,  and  the  two  soon  became  engaged,  in  spite  of  the  riv- 
alry of  Samuel  Hill,  McNeill's  partner.  But  Ann  was  as 
yet  only  a  young  girl ;  and  it  was  thought  very  sensible  in 
her  and  considerate  in  her  lover  that  both  acquiesced  in  the 
wishes  of  Ann's  parents  that,  for  some  time  at  least,  the 
marriage  be  postponed. 

Such  was  the  situation  when  Lincoln  appeared  in  New 
Salem.  He  naturally  soon  became  acquainted  with  the  girl. 
She  was  a  pupil  in  Mentor  Graham's  school,  where  he  fre- 
quently visited,  and  rumor  says  that  he  first  met  her  there. 
However  that  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  in  the  latter  part  of 
1832  he  went  to  board  at  the  Rutledge  tavern  and  there  was 
thrown  daily  into  her  company. 

During  the  next  year,  1833,  Jonn  McNeill,  in  spite  of  his 
fair  prospects,  became  restless  and  discontented.  He  wanted 
to  see  his  people,  he  said,  and  before  the  end  of  the  year  he 


Il8  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

decided  to  go  East  for  a  visit.  To  secure  perfect  free- 
dom from  his  business  while  gone,  he  sold  out  his  interest 
in  his  store.  To  Ann  he  said  that  he  hoped  to  bring  back  his 
father  and  mother,  and  to  place  them  on  his  farm.  "This 
duty  done,"  was  his  farewell  word,  "you  and  I  will  be  mar- 
ried." In  the  spring  of  1834  McNeill  started  East.  The 
journey  overland  by  foot  and  horse  was  in  those  days  a  try- 
ing one,  and  on  the  way  McNeill  fell  ill  with  chills  and  fever. 
It  was  late  in  the  summer  before  he  reached  his  home,  and 
wrote  back  to  Ann,  explaining  his  silence.  The  long  wait 
had  been  a  severe  strain  on  the  girl,  and  Lincoln  had  watched 
her  anxiety  with  softened  heart.  It  was  to  him,  the  New 
Salem  postmaster,  that  she  came  to  inquire  for  letters.  It 
was  to  him  she  entrusted  those  she  sent.  In  a  way  the  post- 
master must  have  become  the  girl's  confidant ;  and  his  tender 
heart  must  have  been  deeply  touched.  After  the  long  silence 
was  broken,  and  McNeill's  first  letter  of  explanation  came, 
the  cause  of  anxiety  seemed  removed ;  but,  strangely  enough, 
other  letters  followed  only  at  long  intervals,  and  finally  they 
ceased  altogether.  Then  it  was  that  the  young  girl  told  her 
friends  a  secret  which  McNeill  had  confided  to  her  before 
leaving  New  Salem. 

He  had  told  her  what  she  had  never  even  suspected  before, 
that  John  McNeill  was  not  his  real  name,  but  that  it  was 
John  McNamar.  Shortly  before  he  came  to  New  Salem, 
he  explained,  his  father  had  suffered  a  disastrous  failure  in 
business.  He  was  the  oldest  son;  and  in  the  hope  of  re- 
trieving the  lost  fortune,  he  resolved  to  go  West,  expecting 
to  return  in  a  few  years  and  share  his  riches  with  the  rest  of 
the  family.  Anticipating  parental  opposition,  he  ran  away 
from  home ;  and,  being  sure  that  he  could  never  accumulate 
anything  with  so  numerous  a  family  to  support,  he  endeav- 
ored to  lose  himself  by  a  change  of  name.  All  this  Ann  had 


ELECTIONEERING  IN  ILLINOIS  119 

believed  and  not  repeated ;  but  now,  worn  out  by  waiting,  she 
took  the  story  to  her  friends. 

[With  few  exceptions  they  pronounced  the  story  a  fabrica- 
tion and  McNamar  an  impostor.  His  excuse  seemed  flimsy. 
Why  had  he  worn  this  mask  ?  At  best,  they  declared,  he  was 
a  mere  adventurer;  and  was  it  not  more  probable  that  he 
was  a  fugitive  from  justice — a  thief,  a  swindler,  or  a  mur- 
derer? And  who  knew  how  many  wives  he  might  have? 
With  all  New  Salem  declaring  John  McNamar  false,  Ann 
Rutledge  could  hardly  be  blamed  for  imagining  that  he  was 
dead  or  had  forgotten  her. 

It  was  not  until  McNeill,  or  McNamar,  had  been  gone 
many  months,  and  gossip  had  become  offensive,  that  Lincoln 
ventured  to  show  his  love  for  Ann,  and  then  it  was  a  long 
time  before  the  girl  would  listen  to  his  suit.  Convinced  at 
last,  however,  that  her  former  lover  had  deserted  her,  she 
yielded  to  Lincoln's  wishes  and  promised,  in  the  spring  of 
1835,  soon  after  Lincoln's  return  from  Vandalia,  to  become 
his  wife.  But  Lincoln  had  nothing  on  which  to  support  a 
family — indeed,  he  found  it  no  trifling  task  to  support  him- 
self. As  for  Ann,  she  was  anxious  to  go  to  school  another 
year.  It  was  decided  that  in  the  autumn  she  should  go  with 
her  brother  to  Jacksonville  and  spend  the  winter  there  in  an 
academy.  Lincoln  was  to  devote  himself  to  his  law  studies ; 
and  the  next  spring,  when  she  returned  from  school  and  he 
had  been  admitted  to  the  bar,  they  were  to  be  married. 

A  happy  spring  and  summer  followed.  New  Salem  took 
a  cordial  interest  in  the  two  lovers  and  presaged  a  happy 
life  for  them,  and  all  would  undoubtedly  have  gone  well  if 
the  young  girl  could  have  dismissed  the  haunting  memory 
of  her  old  lover.  The  possibility  that  she  had  wronged  him, 
that  he  might  reappear,  that  he  loved  her  still,though  she  now 
loved  another,  that  perhaps  she  had  done  wrong — a  tortur- 
ing conflict  of  memory,  lov^  copscience,  'doubt,  and  moi> 


i20  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

bidness  lay  like  a  shadow  across  her  happiness,  and  wore 
upon  her  until  she  fell  ill.  Gradually  her  condition  became 
hopeless ;  and  Lincoln,  who  had  been  shut  from  her,  was  sent 
for.  The  lovers  passed  an  hour  alone  in  an  anguished  part- 
ing, and  soon  after,  on  August  25,  1835,  Ann  died. 

The  death  of  Ann  Rutledge  plunged  Lincoln  into  the  deep- 
est gloom.  That  abiding  melancholy,  that  painful  sense  of 
the  incompleteness  of  life  which  had  been  his  mother's  dowry 
asserted  itself.  It  filled  and  darkened  his  mind  and  his 
imagination  tortured  him  with  its  black  pictures.  One 
stormy  night  Lincoln  was  sitting  beside  William  Greene,  his 
head  bowed  on  his  hand,  while  tears  trickled  through  his 
fingers ;  his  friend  begged  him  to  control  his  sorrow,  to  try 
to  forget.  "I  cannot,"  moaned  Lincoln;  "the  thought  of 
the  snow  and  rain  on  her  grave  fills  me  with  indescribable 
grief." 

He  was  seen  walking  alone  by  the  river  and  through  the 
woods,  muttering  strange  things  to  himself.  He  seemed 
to  his  friends  to  be  in  the  shadow  of  madness.  They  kept 
a  close  watch  over  him ;  and  at  last  Bowling  Green,  one  of 
the  most  devoted  friends  Lincoln  then  had,  took  him  home 
to  his  little  log  cabin,  half  a  mile  north  of  New  Salem,  under 
the  brow  of  a  big  bluff.  Here,  under  the  loving  care  of 
Green,  and  his  good  wife  Nancy,  Lincoln  remained  until  he 
was  once  more  master  of  himself. 

But  though  he  had  regained  self-control,  his  grief  was 
deep  and  bitter.  Ann  Rutledge  was  buried  in  Concord  cem- 
etery, a  country  burying-ground  seven  miles  northwest  of 
New  Salem.  To  this  lonely  spot  Lincoln  frequently  jour- 
neyed to  weep  over  her  grave.  "My  heart  is  buried  there," 
he  said  to  one  of  his  friends. 

When  McNamar  returned  (for  McNamar's  story  was 
true,  and  two  months  after  Ann  Rutledge  died  he  drove  into 
New  Salem  with  his  widowed  mother  and  his  brothers  and 


ELECTIONEERING  IN  ILLINOIS  121 

sisters  in  the  "prairie  schooner"  beside  him)  and  learned  of 
Ann's  death,  he  "saw  Lincoln  at  the  post-office,"  as  he  after- 
ward said,  and  "he  seemed  desolate  and  sorely  distressed." 
On  himself  apparently,  her  death  produced  no  deep  impres- 
sion. Within  a  year  he  married  another  woman;  and  his 
conduct  toward  Ann  Rutledge  is  to  this  day  a  mystery. 

In  later  life,  when  Lincoln's  sorrow  had  become  a 
memory,  he  told  a  friend  who  questioned  him :  "I  really  and 
truly  loved  the  girl  and  think  often  of  her  now."  There  was 
a  pause,  and  then  the  President  added : 

"And  I  have  loved  the  name  of  Rutledge  to  this  day." 

When  the  death  of  Ann  Rutledge  came  upon  Lincoln,  for 
a  time  threatening  to  destroy  his  ambition  and  blast  his  life, 
he  was  in  a  most  encouraging  position.  Master  of  a  profes- 
sion in  which  he  had  an  abundance  of  work  and  earned  fair 
fees,  hopeful  of  being  admitted  in  a  few  months  to  the  bar, 
a  member  of  the  State  Assembly  with  every  reason  to  believe 
that,  if  he  desired  it,  his  constituency  would  return  him — few 
men  are  as  far  advanced  at  twenty-six  as  was  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. 

Intellectually  he  was  far  better  equipped  than  he  believed 
himself  to  be,  better  than  he  has  ordinarily  been  credited  with 
being.  True,  he  had  had  no  conventional  college  training, 
but  he  had  by  his  own  efforts  attained  the  chief  result  of  all 
preparatory  study,  the  ability  to  take  hold  of  a  subject  and 
assimilate  it.  The  fact  that  in  six  weeks  he  had  acquired 
enough  of  the  science  of  surveying  to  enable  him  to  serve  as 
deputy  surveyor  shows  how  well-trained  his  mind  was.  The 
power  to  grasp  a  large  subject  quickly  and  fully  is  never  an 
accident.  The  nights  Lincoln  spent  in  Gentryville  lying  on 
the  floor  in  front  of  the  fire  figuring  on  the  fire-shovel,  the 
hours  he  passed  in  poring  over  the  Statutes  of  Indiana,  the 
days  he  wrestled  with  Kirkham's  Grammar,  alone  made  the 
mastery  of  Flint  and  Gibson  possible.  His  struggle  with 


122  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

Flint  and  Gibson  made  easier  the  volumes  he  Borrowed  from 
Major  Stuart's  law  library. 

Lincoln  had  a  mental  trait  which  explains  his  rapid 
growth  in  mastering  subjects — seeing  clearly  was  essential 
to  him.  He  was  unable  to  put  a  question  aside  until  he  un- 
derstood it.  It  pursued  him,  irritated  him  until  solved. 
Even  in  his  Gentryville  days  his  comrades  noted  that  he  was 
constantly  searching  for  reasons  and  that  he  "explained  so 
clearly."  This  characteristic  became  stronger  with  years. 
He  was  unwilling  to  pronounce  himself  on  any  subject  until 
he  understood  it,  and  he  could  not  let  it  alone  until  he  had 
reached  a  conclusion  which  satisfied  him. 

This  seeing  clearly  became  a  splendid  force  in  Lincoln; 
for  when  he  once  had  reached  a  conclusion  he  had  the  hon- 
esty of  soul  to  suit  his  actions  to  it.  No  consideration  could 
induce  him  to  abandon  the  line  of  conduct  which  his  reason 
told  him  was  logical.  Joined  to  these  strong  mental  and 
moral  qualities  was  that  power  of  immediate  action  which  so 
often  explains  why  one  man  succeeds  in  life  while  another 
of  equal  intelligence  and  uprightness  fails.  As  soon  as  Lin- 
coln saw  a  thing  to  do  he  did  it.  He  wants  to  know ;  here  is 
a  book — it  may  be  a  biography,  a  volume  of  dry  statutes,  a 
collection  of  verse;  no  matter,  he  reads  and  ponders  it  until 
he  has  absorbed  all  it  has  for  him.  He  is  eager  to  see  the 
world ;  a  man  offers  him  a  position  as  a  "  hand  "  on  a  Mis- 
sissippi flatboat;  he  takes  it  without  a  moment's  hesitation 
over  the  toil  and  exposure  it  demands.  John  Calhoun  is  will- 
ing to  make  him  a  deputy  surveyor;  he  knows  nothing  of  the 
science;  in  six  weeks  he  has  learned  enough  to  begin  his  la- 
bors. Sangamon  county  must  have  representatives,  why  not 
he?  and  his  circular  goes  out.  Ambition  alone  will  not  ex- 
plain this  power  of  instantaneous  action.  It  comes  largely 
from  that  active  imagination  which,  when  a  new  relation  or 
position  opens,  seizes  on  all  its  possibilities  and  from  them 


ELECTIONEERING  IN  ILLINOIS  123 

creates  a  situation  so  real  that  one  enters  with  confidence 
upon  what  seems  to  the  unimaginative  the  rashest  undertak- 
ing. Lincoln  saw  the  possibilities  in  things  and  immediately 
appreciated  them. 

But  the  position  he  filled  in  Sangamon  county  in  1835  was 
not  all  due  to  these  qualities ;  much  was  due  to  his  personal 
charm.  By  all  accounts  he  was  big,  awkward,  ill-clad,  shy — 
yet  his  sterling  honor,  his  unselfish  nature,  his  heart  of  the 
true  gentleman,  inspired  respect  and  confidence.  Men  might] 
laugh  at  his  first  appearance,  but  they  were  not  long  in  recog-i 
nizing  the  real  superiority  of  his  nature. 

Such  was  Abraham  Lincoln  at  twenty-six,  when  the  tragic' 
death  of  Ann  Rutledge  made  all  that  he  had  attained,  all  that; 
he  had  planned,  seem  fruitless  and  empty.  He  was  too  sin- 
cere and  just,  too  brave  a  man,  to  allow  a  great  sorrow  per-< 
manently  to  interfere  with  his  activities.  He  rallied  his 
forces,  and  returned  to  his  law,  his  surveying,  his  politics. 
He  brought  to  his  work  a  new  power,  that  insight  and 
patience  which  only  a  great  sorrow  can  give. 


CHAPTER  IX 

LINCOLN   IS   RE-ELECTED    TO    THE   ILLINOIS    ASSEMBLY HIS 

FIRST      PUBLISHED      ADDRESS PROTESTS      AGAINST      PRO- 
SLAVERY    RESOLUTIONS    OF    THE    ASSEMBLY 

THE  Ninth  General  Assembly  of  Illinois  held  its  opening 
session  in  the  winter  of  1834-35.  It  was  Lincoln's  first  ex- 
perience as  a  legislator  and  it  was  rather  a  tame  one,  but  in 
December,  1835,  the  members  were  called  to  an  extra  ses- 
sion which  proved  to  be  in  every  way  more  exciting  and  more 
eventful  than  its  predecesso/s.  The  chief  reason  for  its  be- 
ing called  was  in  itself  calculated  to  exhilarate  the  hopeful 
young  law-givers.  A  census  had  been  taken  since  their  last 
session  and  so  large  an  increase  in  population  had  been  re- 
ported that  it  was  considered  necessary  to  summon  the  as- 
sembly to  re-apportion  the  legislative  districts.  When  the  re- 
apportionment  was  made  it  was  found  that  the  General  As- 
sembly was  increased  by  fifty  members,  the  number  of  sen- 
ators being  raised  from  twenty-six  to  forty,  of  representa- 
tives from  fifty-five  to  ninety-one.  A  growth  of  fifty  mem- 
bers in  four  years  excited  the  imagination  of  the  State.  The 
dignity  and  importance  of  Illinois  suddenly  assumed  new  im- 
portance. It  was  imagined  that  the  story  of  New  York's 
growth  in  wealth  and  influence  was  to  be  repeated  in  this 
new  country  and  every  ambitious  man  in  the  assembly  de- 
termined to  lead  in  the  rise  of  the  State. 

The  work  on  internal  improvements  begun  in  the 
previous  session  took  a  new  form.  The  governor,  in  calling 
the  members  together,  had  said :  "While  I  would  urge  the 
most  liberal  support  of  all  such  measures  as  tending  with  per- 
fect certainty  to  increase  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the 

124 


FIRST  PUBLISHED  ADDRESS  125 

State,  I  would  at  the  same  time  most  respectfully  suggest  the 
propriety  of  intrusting  the  construction  of  all  such  works 
where  it  can  be  done  consistently  with  the  general  interest,  to 
individual  enterprise."  The  legislators  acquiesced  and  in  this 
session  began  to  grant  a  series  of  private  charters  for  inter- 
nal improvements  which  had  they  been  carried  out,  would 
have  given  the  State  means  of  communication  in  1840  al- 
most if  not  quite  equal  to  those  of  to-day.  The  map  on  page 
135  shows  the  incorporations  of  railroad  and  canal  com- 
panies made  in  the  extra  session  of  the  Ninth  Assembly, 
1835-36,  and  in  the  regular  session  of  the  Tenth,  1836-37; 
sixteen  of  the  railroads  were  chartered  in  the  former  session. 

Lincoln  and  his  colleagues  did  not  devote  their  attention 
entirely  to  chartering  railroads.  Ten  schools  were  chartered 
in  this  same  session,  some  of  which  exist  to-day.  In  the  next 
session  twelve  academies  and  eighteen  colleges  received  char- 
ters. 

The  absorbing  topic  of  the  winter,  however,  and  the  one 
in  which  Lincoln  was  chiefly  concerned  was  the  threatened 
naturalization  of  the  convention  system  in  Illinois.  Up  to 
this  time  candidates  for  office  in  the  United  States  had  gen- 
erally nominated  themselves  as  we  have  seen  Lincoln  doing. 
The  only  formality  they  imposed  upon  themselves  was  to 
consult  a  little  unauthorized  caucus  of  personal  friends.  Un- 
less they  were  exceptionally  cautious  persons  the  disapproval 
of  this  caucus  did  not  stand  in  their  way  at  all.  So  long  as 
party  lines  were  indistinct  and  the  personal  qualities  of  a 
candidate  were  considered  rather  than  his  platform  this 
method  of  nomination  was  possible,  but  with  party  organiza- 
tion it  began  to  change.  In  the  case  of  presidential  can- 
didates the  convention  with  its  delegates  and  platform  had 
just  appeared,  the  first  full-fledged  one  being  held  but  three 
years  before,  in  1832.  Along  with  the  presidential  conven- 
tion came  the  "machine,"  an  organization  of  all  those  wHo 


126  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

belonged  to  a  party,  intended  to  secure  unity  of  effort. 
By  means  of  primaries  and  conventions  one  candidate  was' 
put  forward  by  a  party  instead  of  a  dozen  being  allowed  to 
offer  themselves.  The  strength  which  the  convention  gave 
the  Democratic  party,  which  first  adopted  and  developed  it, 
was  enormous.  The  Whigs  opposed  the  new  institution ;  they 
declared  it  "was  intended  to  abridge  the  liberties  of  the  peo- 
ple by  depriving  individuals,  on  their  own  mere  motion,  of 
the  privilege  of  becoming  candidates  and  depriving  each  man 
of  the  right  to  vote  for  a  candidate  of  his  own  selection  and 
choice." 

The  efficacy  of  the  new  method  was  so  apparent,  however, 
that,  let  the  Whigs  preach  as  they  would,  it  was  rapidly 
adopted.  In  1835  the  whole  machinery  was  well  developed 
in  New  England  and  New  York  and  had  appeared  in  the 
West.  In  the  north  of  Illinois  the  Democrats  had  begun  to 
organize  under  the  leadership  of  two  men  of  eastern  origin 
and  training,  Ebenezer  Peck  of  Chicago,  and  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  of  Jacksonville,  and  this  session  of  the  Illinois  legis- 
lature the  convention  system  became  a  subject  of  discussion. 

The  Whigs,  Lincoln  among  them,  violently  opposed  the 
new  scheme.  It  was  a  Yankee  contrivance  they  said,  favored 
only  by  New  Englanders  like  Douglas,  or  worse  still  by 
monarchists  like  Peck.  They  recalled  with  pious  indigna- 
tion that  Peck  was  a  Canadian,  brought  up  under  an  aristo- 
cratic form  of  government,  that  he  had  even  deserted  the 
liberal  party  of  this  government  to  go  over  to  the  ultra- 
monarchists.  They  declared  it  a  remarkable  fact  that  no  man 
born  and  raised  west  of  the  mountains  or  south  of  the  Po- 
tomac had  yet  returned  to  vindicate  "the  wholesale  system  of 
convention."  In  spite  of  Whig  warnings,  however,  the  con- 
vention system  was  approved  by  a  vote  of  twenty-six  to 
twenty-five. 

The  Ninth  Assembly  expired  at  the  close  of  this  extra  ses- 


FIRST  PUBLISHED  ADDRESS  127 

sion  and  in  June  Lincoln  announced  himself  as  a  candidate 
for  the  Tenth  Assembly.  A  few  days  later  the  "Sangamon 
Journal"  published  his  simple  platform : 

"New  Salem,  June  13,  1836. 

"To  the  Editor  of  the  'Journal' : 

"  In  your  paper  of  last  Saturday  I  see  a  communication, 
over  the  signature  of  'Many  Voters/  in  which  the  candidates 
who  are  announced  in  the  'Journal'  are  called  upon  to  'show 
their  hands/  Agreed.  Here's  mine. 

"I  go  for  all  sharing  the  privileges  of  the  government  who 
assist  in  bearing  its  burdens.  Consequently,  I  go  for  ad- 
mitting all  whites  to  the  right  of  suffrage  who  pay  taxes  or 
bear  arms  (by  no  means  excluding  females). 

"If  elected,  I  shall  consider  the  whole  people  of  Sangamon 
my  constituents,  as  well  those  that  oppose  as  those  that  sup- 
port me. 

"While  acting  as  their  representative,  I  shall  be  governed 
by  their  will  on  all  subjects  upon  which  I  have  the  means  of 
knowing  what  their  will  is;  and  upon  all  others  I  shall  do 
what  my  own  judgment  teaches  me  will  best  advance  their 
interests.  Whether  elected  or  not,  I  go  for  distributing  the 
proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  to  the  several  States, 
to  enable  our  State,  in  common  with  others,  to  dig  canals  and 
construct  railroads  without  borrowing  money  and  paying 
the  interest  on  it. 

"If  alive  on  the  first  Monday  in  November,  I  shall  vote 
for  Hugh  L.  White  for  President. 

"Very  respectfully, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

The  campaign  which  Lincoln  began  with  this  letter  was  in 
every  way  more  exciting  for  him  than  those  of  1832  and 
1834.  In  the  reapportionment  of  the  legislative  districts 
which  had  taken  place  the  winter  before  Sangamon  County's 
delegation  had  been  enlarged  to  seven  representatives  and 
two  senators.  This  gave  large  new  opportunities  to  political 
Ambition,  and  doubled  the  enthusiasm  of  political  meetings. 


128  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

But  the  increase  of  the  representation  was  not  all  that 
'made  the  campaign  exciting.  Party  lines  had  never  before 
been  so  clearly  drawn  in  Sangamon  county,  nor  personal 
abuse  quite  so  frank.  One  of  Lincoln's  first  acts  was  to  an- 
swer a  personal  attack.  During  his  absence  from  New  Salem 
a  rival  candidate  passed  through  the  place  and  stated  pub- 
licly that  he  was  in  possession'  of  facts  which,  if  known  to 
the  public,  would  entirely  destroy  Lincoln's  prospects  at  the 
coming  election ;  but  he  declared  that  he  thought  so  much  of 
Lincoln  that  he  would  not  tell  what  he  knew.  Lincoln  met 
this  mysterious  insinuation  with  shrewd  candor.  "No  one 
has  needed  favors  more  than  I,"  he  wrote  his  rival,  "and  gen- 
erally few  have  been  less  unwilling  to  accept  them;  but  in 
this  case  favor  to  me  would  be  injustice  to  the  public,  and 
therefore  I  must  beg  your  pardon  for  declining  it.  That  I 
once  had  the  confidence  of  the  people  of  Sangamon  County 
is  sufficiently  evident;  and  if  I  have  done  anything,  either  by 
design  or  misadventure,  which  if  known  would  subject  me 
to  a  forfeiture  of  that  confidence,  he  that  knows  of  that  thing 
and  conceals  it  is  a  traitor  to  his  country's  interest. 

"I  find  myself  wholly  unable  to  form  any  conjecture  of 
what  fact  or  facts,  real  or  supposed,  you  spoke ;  but  my  opin- 
ion of  your  veracity  will  not  permit  me  for  a  moment  to 
doubt  that  you  at  least  believed  what  you  said.  I  am  flat- 
tered with  the  personal  regard  you  manifested  for  me ;  but  I 
do  hope  that  on  mature  reflection  you  will  view  the  public 
interest  as  a  paramount  consideration  and  therefore  let  the 
worst  come." 

Usually  during  the  campaign  Lincoln  was  obliged  to  meet 
personal  attacks,  not  by  letter,  but  on  the  platform.  Joshua 
Speed,  who  later  became  the  most  intimate  friend  that  Lin- 
coln probably  ever  had,  tells  of  one  occasion  when  he  was 
obliged  to  meet  such  an  attack  on  the  very  spur  of  the  mo- 
ment. A  great  mass-meeting  was  in  progress  at  Spring- 


FIRST  PUBLISHED  ADDRESS  129 

field,  and  Lincoln  had  made  a  speech  which  had  produced  a 

deep  impression, 

"  I  was  then  fresh  from  Kentucky,"  says  Mr.  Speed,  "  and 
had  heard  many  of  her  great  orators.  It  seemed  to  me  then, 
as  it  seems  to  me  now,  that  I  never  heard  a  more  effective 
speaker.  He  carried  the  crowd  with  him,  and  swayed  them 
as  he  pleased.  So  deep  an  impression  did  he  make  that 
George  Forquer,  a  man  of  much  celebrity  as  a  sarcastic" 
speaker  and  with  a  great  reputation  throughout  the  State  as 
an  orator,  rose  and  asked  the  people  to  hear  him.  He  began 
his  speech  by  saying  that  this  young  man  would  have  to  be 
taken  down,  and  he  was  sorry  that  the  task  devolved 
upon  him.  He  made  what  was  called  one  of  his  'slasher-gaff' 
speeches,  dealing  much  in  ridicule  and  sarcasm.  Lincoln 
stood  near  him,  with  his  arms  folded,  never  interrupting  him. 
When  Forquer  was  done,  Lincoln  walked  to  the  stand,  and 
replied  so  fully  and  completely  that  his  friends  bore  him  from 
the  court-house  on  their  shoulders. 

"So  deep  an  impression  did  this  first  speech  make  upon  me 
that  I  remember  its  conclusion  now,  after  a  lapse  of  thirty- 
eight  years. 

"  The  gentleman  commenced  his  speech/  he  said,  'by  say- 
ing that  this  young  man  would  have  to  be  taken  down,  and 
he  was  sorry  the  task  devolved  upon  him.  I  am  not  so  young 
in  years  as  I  am  in  the  tricks  and  trade  of  a  politician ;  but 
live  long  or  die  young,  I  would  rather  die  now  than,  like  the 
gentleman,  change  my  politics  and  simultaneous  with  the 
change  receive  an  office  worth  three  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
and  then  have  to  erect  a  lightning-rod  over  my  house  to  pro- 
tect a  guilty  conscience  from  an  offended  God.' 

"To  understand  the  point  of  this  it  must  be  explained  that 
Forquer  had  been  a  Whig,  but  had  changed  his  politics,  and 
had  been  appointed  Register  of  the  Land  Office ;  and  over 

'  his  house  was  the  only  lightning-rod  in  the  town  or  county. 
Lincoln  had  seen  the  lightning-rod  for  the  first  time  on  the 

'day  before." 

This  speech  has  never  been  forgotten  in  Springfield,  and 
on  my  visits  there  I  have  repeatedly  had  the  site  of  the  house 
(9) 


130  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

on  which  this  particular  lightning-rod  was  placed  pointed 
out,  and  one  or  another  of  the  many  versions  which  the  story 
has  taken,  related  to  me. 

It  was  the  practice  at  that  date  in  Illinois  for  two  rival  can- 
didates to  travel  over  the  district  together.  The  custom  led 
to  much  good-natured  raillery  between  them;  and  in  such 
contests  Lincoln  was  rarely,  if  ever,  worsted.  He  could  even 
turn  the  generosity  of  a  rival  to  account  by  his  whimsical 
treatment.  On  one  occasion,  says  Mr.  Weir,  a  former  resi- 
dent of  Sangamon  county,  he  had  driven  out  from  Spring- 
field in  company  with  a  political  opponent  to  engage  in  joint 
debate.  The  carriage,  it  seems,  belonged  to  his  opponent.  In 
addressing  the  gathering  of  farmers  that  met  them,  Lincoln 
was  lavish  in  praise  of  the  generosity  of  his  friend.  "I  am 
too  poor  to  own  a  carriage,"  he  said,  "but  my  friend  has  gen- 
erously invited  me  to  ride  with  him.  I  want  you  to  vote  for 
me  if  you  will ;  but  if  not  then  vote  for  my  opponent,  for  he 
is  a  fine  man."  His  extravagant  and  persistent  praise  of  his 
opponent  appealed  to  the  sense  of  humor  in  his  rural  au- 
dience, to  whom  his  inability  to  own  a  carriage  was  by 
no  means  a  disqualification. 

The  election  came  off  in  August,  and  resulted  in  the  choice 
of  a  delegation  from  Sangamon  County  famous  in  the  annals 
of  Illinois.  The  nine  successful  candidates  were  Abraham 
Lincoln,  John  Dawson,  Daniel  Stone,  Ninian  W.  Edwards, 
William  F.  Elkins,  R.  L.  Wilson,  Andrew  McCormick,  Job 
Fletcher,  and  Arthur  Herndon.  Each  one  of  these  men  was 
over  six  feet  in  height,  their  combined  stature  being,  it  is 
said,  fifty-five  feet.  "The  Long  Nine"  was  the  name  Sanga- 
mon County  gave  them. 

As  soon  as  the  election  was  over  Lincoln  occupied  himself 
in  settling  another  matter,  of  much  greater  moment.  He  went 
to  Springfield  to  seek  admission  to  the  bar.  The  "roll  of  at- 
torneys and  counsellors  at  law,"  on  file  in  the  office  of  the 


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132  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  shows 
that  his  license  was  dated  September  9,  1836,  and  that  the 
date  of  the  enrollment  of  his  name  upon  the  official  list  was 
March  i,  1837.  The  first  case  in  which  he  was  concerned,  as 
far  as  we  know,  was  that  of  Hawthorne  against-  Woolridge. 
He  made  his  first  appearance  in  court  in  October,  1836. 

Although  he  had  given  much  time  during  this  year  to  poli- 
tics and  the  law,  he  had  by  no  means  abandoned  surveying. 
Indeed  he  never  had  more  calls.  The  grandiose  scheme  of 
internal  improvements  initiated  the  winter  before  had  stimu- 
lated speculation  and  Lincoln  frequently  was  obliged  to  be 
away  for  three  and  four  weeks  at  a  time,  laying  out  new 
towns  or  locating  new  roads. 

Every  such  trip  added  to  his  political  capital.  Such  was 
his  reputation  throughout  the  country  that  when  he  got  a 
job,  says  the  Hon.  J.  M.  Ruggles,  a  friend  and  political  sup- 
porter, there  was  a  picnic  and  jolly  time  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. Men  and  boys  gathered  from  far  and  near,  ready  to 
carry  chain,  drive  stakes,  and  blaze  trees,  if  they  could  only 
hear  Lincoln's  odd  stories  and  jokes.  The  fun  was  inter- 
spersed with  foot  races  and  wrestling  matches.  To  this  day 
the  old  settlers  in  many  a  place  of  central  Illinois  repeat  the 
incidents  of  Lincoln's  sojourns  in  their  neighborhood  while 
surveying  their  town. 

In  December  Lincoln  put  away  his  surveying  instruments 
to  go  to  Vandalia  for  the  opening  session  of  the  Tenth  As- 
sembly, Larger  by  fifty  members  than  its  predecessor,  this 
body  was  as  much  superior  in  intellect  as  in  numbers.  It  in- 
cluded among  its  members  a  future  President  of  the  United 
States,  a  future  candidate  for  the  same  high  office,  six  future 
United  States  Senators,  eight  future  members  of  the  Na- 
tional House  of  Representatives,  a  future  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  and  three  future  Judges  of  the  State  Supreme  Court. 
Here  sat  side  by  side  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Stephen  A. 


FIRST  PUBLISHED  ADDRESS  133 

Douglas;  Edward  Dickinson  Baker,  who  represented  at  dif-< 
ferent  times  the  States  of  Illinois  and  Oregon  in  the  national 
councils ;  O.  H.  Browning,  a  prospective  senator  and  future 
cabinet  officer,  and  William  L.  D.  Ewing,  who  had  just 
served  in  the  senate ;  John  Logan,  father  of  the  late  General 
John  A.  Logan ;  Robert  M.  Cullom,  father  of  Senator  Shelby 
M.  Cullom;  John  A.  McClernand,  afterwards  member  of 
congress  for  many  years,  and  a  distinguished  general  in  the 
late  civil  war ;  and  many  others  of  national  repute. 

The  members  came  to  Vandalia  full  of  hope  and  exulta- 
tion. In  their  judgment  it  needed  only  a  few  months  of  leg- 
islation to  put  their  State  by  the  side  of  New  York;  and 
from  the  opening  of  the  session  they  were  overflowing  with 
excitement  and  schemes.  In  the  general  ebullition  of  spirits 
which  characterized  the  assembly,  Lincoln  had  little  share. 
Only  a  week  after  the  opening  of  the  session  he  wrote  to  a 
friend,  Mary  Owens,  at  New  Salem,  that  he  had  been  ill, 
though  he  believed  himself  to  be  about  well  then;  and  he 
added:  "But  that,  with  other  things  I  cannot  account  for, 
have  conspired,  and  have  gotten  my  spirits  so  low  that  I  feel 
I  would  rather  be  any  place  in  the  world  than  here.  I  really 
cannot  endure  the  thought  of  staying  here  ten  weeks." 

Though  depressed,  he  was  far  from  being  inactive.  The 
Sangamon  delegation,  in  fact,  had  its  hands  full,  and  to  no 
one  of  the  nine  had  more  been  entrusted  than  to  Lincoln.  In 
common  with  almost  every  delegation,  they  had  been  in- 
structed by  their  constituents  to  adopt  a  scheme  of  internal 
improvements  complete  enough  to  give  every  budding  town 
in  Illinois  easy  communication  with  the  world.  This  for  the 
State  in  general;  for  Sangamon  County  in  particular,  they 
had  been  directed  to  secure  the  capital.  The  change  in  the 
State's  centre  of  population  made  it  advisable  to  move  the 
seat  of  government  northward  from  Vandalia,  and  Spring- 
field was  anxious  to  secure  it.  To  Lincoln  was  entrusted  the 


134  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

work  of  putting  through  the  bill  to  remove  the  capital.  In 
the  same  letter  quoted  from  above  he  tells  Miss  Owens :  "Our 
chance  to  take  the  seat  of  government  to  Springfield  is  bet- 
ter than  I  expected."  Regarding  the  internal  improvements 
scheme  he  feels  less  confident :  "Some  of  the  legislature  are 
for  it,  and  some  against;  which  has  the  majority,  I  cannot 
tell." 

It  was  not  long,  however,  before  all  uncertainty  about  in- 
ternal improvements  was  over.  The  people  were  determined 
to  have  them,  and  the  assembly  responded  to  their  demands 
by  passing  an  act  which  provided,  at  State  expense,  for  rail- 
roads, canals,  or  river  improvements  in  almost  every  county 
in  Illinois.  No  finer  bit  of  imaginative  work  was  ever  done, 
in  fact,  by  a  legislative  body,  than  the  map  of  internal  im- 
provements laid  out  by  the  Tenth  Assembly. 

With  splendid  disdain  of  town  settlements  and  resources 
they  ran  the  railroads  into  the  counties  they  thought  ought 
to  be  opened  up,  and  if  there  was  no  terminus  they  laid  out 
one.  They  improved  the  rivers  and  they  dug  canals,  they 
built  bridges  and  drained  the  swamps,  they  planned  to  make 
the  waste  places  blossom  and  to  people  the  forests  with  men. 
This  project  was  to  benefit  every  hamlet  of  the  State,  said  its 
defenders,  and  to  compensate  the  counties  which  were  not  to 
have  railroads  or  canals  they  voted  them  a  sum  of  money  for 
roads  and  bridges. 

There  was  no  time  to  estimate  exactly  the  cost  of  these 
fine  plans.  Nor  did  they  feel  any  need  of  estimates ;  that 
was  a  mere  matter  of  detail.  They  would  vote  a  fund,  and 
when  that  was  exhausted  they  would  vote  more ;  and  so  they 
appropriated  sum  after  sum :  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
to  improve  the  Rock  river;  one  million  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  to  build  a  road  from  Quincy  to  Danville;  four 
million  dollars  to  complete  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal ; 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  for  the  Western  Mail  Route 


ILLUSTRATING 

"An  Act  to  establish  and  maintain  a 
General  System  of  Internal  Improvements, 
h  /oro«  27th  F»b.  1837" 

80XVC  OP  MILM 

$ 10    20"  "w    ^""Hfli    co 


ntrn.  *****,  9*. 


136  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

— in  all,  some  twelve  million  dollars.  To  carry  out  the  elal* 
orate  scheme,  they  provided  a  commission,  one  of  the  first 
duties  of  which  was  to  sell  the  bonds  of  the  State  to  raise  the 
money  for  the  enterprise.  The  majority  of  the  assembly 
seem  not  to  have  entertained  for  a  moment  an  idea  that  there 
would  be  any  difficulty  in  selling  at  a  premium  the  bonds  of 
Illinois.  "On  the  contrary,"  says  General  Linder,  in  his 
"Reminiscences,"  "the  enthusiastic  friends  of  the  measure 
maintained  that,  instead  of  there  being  any  difficulty  in  ob- 
taining a  loan  of  the  fifteen  or  twenty  millions  authorized  to 
be  borrowed,  our  bonds  would  go  like  hot  cakes,  and  be 
sought  for  by  the  Rothschilds,  and  Baring  Brothers,  and 
others  of  that  stamp ;  and  that  the  premiums  which  we  would 
obtain  upon  them  would  range  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  per 
cent.,  and  that  the  premium  itself  would  be  sufficient  to  con- 
struct most  of  the  important  works,  leaving  the  principal  sum 
to  go  into  our  treasury,  and  leave  the  people  free  from  taxa- 
tion for  years  to  come." 

The  scheme  was  carried  without  difficulty  and  the  work 
of  raising  money  and  of  grading  road-beds  began  almost 
simultaneously.  All  of  this  seems  insane  enough  to-day, 
knowing  as  we  do  that  it  ended  in  panic  and  bankruptcy,  in 
deserted  road-beds  and  unpaid  bills,  but  at  that  time  the 
measure  seemed  to  the  legislature  only  the  enterprise  which 
the  prospects  of  the  country  demanded.  Illinois  was  not  alone 
in  confidence  and  recklessness.  Her  folly  was  that  of  the 
whole  country.  Never  had  there  been  a  period  of  rasher 
speculation  and  inflation.  The  entire  debt  of  the  country  had 
been  paid,  and  a  great  income  was  pouring  in  on  the  federal 
government.  The  completion  of  certain  great  works  like  the 
Erie  Canal  had  stimulated  trade,  and  greatly  increased  the 
value  of  lands.  Every  variety  of  industry  was  succeeding. 
Capital  was  pouring  in  from  Europe  which  seemed  dazzled 
at  the  thought  of  a  nation  free  from  debt  with  a  revenue  so 


FIRST  PUBLISHED  ADDRESS  137 

great  that  she  was  forced  to  distribute  it  quarterly  to  her 
States  as  the  United  States  began  to  do  in  January,  1837.  An 
exaggerated  confidence  in  regard  to  the  future  of  the  country 
possessed  both  foreign  and  domestic  capitalist.  Credit  was 
practically  unlimited,  "Debt  was  the  road  to  wealth"  and  men 
could  realize  millions  on  the  wildest  schemes.  Little  wonder 
that  Lincoln  and  his  associates,  ignorant  of  the  history  of 
finance  and  governed  as  they  were  by  popular  opinion,  fell 
into  the  delusion  of  the  day  and  sought  to  found  a  State  on 
credit. 

Although  Lincoln  favored  and  aided  in  every  way  the 
plan  for  internal  improvements,  his  real  work  was  in  secur- 
ing the  removal  of  the  capital  to  Springfield.  The  task  was 
by  no  means  an  easy  one  to  direct,  for  outside  of  the  "Long 
Nine"  there  was,  of  course,  nobody  particularly  interested  in 
Springfield,  and  there  were  delegations  from  a  dozen  other 
counties  hot  to  secure  the  capital  for  their  own  constituencies. 
It  took  patient  and  clever  manipulation  to  put  the  bill 
through.  Certain  votes  Lincoln,  no  doubt,  gained  for  his 
cause  by  force  of  his  personal  qualities.  Thus  Jesse  K.  Du- 
bois  says  that  he  and  his  colleagues  voted  for  the  bill  because 
they  liked  Lincoln  and  wanted  to  oblige  him ;  but  probably 
the  majority  he  won  by  skillful  log-rolling.  The  very  few 
letters  written  by  him  at  this  time  which  have  been  preserved 
show  this ;  for  instance  a  letter  to  John  Bennett  in  which  he 
says: 

"  Mr.  Edwards  tells  me  you  wish  to  know  whether  the  act 
to  which  your  town  incorporation  provision  was  attached 
passed  into  a  law.  It  did.  You  can  organize  under  the  gen- 
eral incorporation  law  as  soon  as  you  choose. 

"I  also  tacked  a  provision  on  to  a  fellow's  bill,  to  authorize 
the  relocation  of  the  road  from  Salem  down  to  your  town, 
but  I  am  not  certain  whether  or  not  the  bill  passed.  Neither 
do  I  suppose  I  can  ascertain  before  the.  law  will  be  published 
—if  it  is  a  law." 


138  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

There  is  nothing  in  his  correspondence,  however,  to  show 
that  he  ever  sacrificed  his  principles  in  these  trades.  Every- 
thing we  know  of  his  transactions  are  indeed  to  the  contrary. 
General  T.  H.  Henderson,  of  Illinois,  says  in  his  reminis- 
cences of  Lincoln : 

I  "  Before  I  had  ever  seen  Abraham  Lincoln  I  heard  my 
father,  who  served  with  him  in  the  legislature  of  1838-39  and 
of  1840-41,  relate  an  incident  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  which 
illustrates  his  character  for  integrity  and  his  firmness  in 
maintaining  what  he  regarded  as  right  in  his  public  acts,  in 
a  marked  manner. 

"  I  do  not  remember  whether  this  incident  occurred  during 
the  session  of  the  legislature  in  1836-37  or  1838-39.  But  I 
think  it  was  in  that  of  1836-37,  when  it  was  said  that  there 
was  a  great  deal  of  log-rolling  going  on  among  the  members. 
But,  however  that  may  be,  according  to  the  story  related  by 
my  father,  an  effort  was  made  to  unite  the  friends  of  capital 
removal  with  the  friends  of  some  measure  which  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, for  some  reason,  did  not  approve.  What  that  measure 
was  to  which  he  objected,  I  am  not  now  able  to  recall.  But 
those  who  desired  the  removal  of  the  capital  to  Springfield 
were  very  anxious  to  effect  the  proposed  combination,  and  a 
meeting  was  held  to  see  if  it  could  be  accomplished.  The 
meeting  continued  in  session  nearly  all  night,  when  it  ad- 
journed without  accomplishing  anything,  Mr.  Lincoln  re- 
fusing to  yield  his  objections  and  to  support  the  obnoxious 
measure. 

Another  meeting  was  called,  and  at  this  second  meeting 
a  number  of  citizens,  not  members  of  the  legislature,  from 
the  central  and  northern  parts  of  the  State,  among  them  my 
father,  were  present  by  invitation.  The  meeting  was  long 
protracted,  and  earnest  in  its  deliberations.  Every  argument 
that  could  be  thought  of  was  used  to  induce  Mr.  Lincoln  to 
yield  his  objections  and  unite  with  his  friends,  and  thus  se- 
cure the  removal  of  the  capital  to  his  own  city;  but  without 
effect.  Finally,  after  midnight,  when  everybody  seemed  ex- 
hausted with  the  discussion,  and  when  the  candles  were  burn- 
ing low  in  the  room,  Mr.  Lincoln  rose  amid  the  silence  and 


FIRST  PUBLISHED  ADDRESS  139 

solemnity  which  prevailed,  and,  my  father  said,  made  one  of 
the  most  eloquent  and  powerful  speeches  to  which  he  had 
ever  listened.  He  concluded  his  remarks  by  saying: 
'You  may  burn  my  body  to  ashes,  and  scatter  them  to  the 
winds  of  heaven ;  you  may  drag  my  soul  down  to  the  regions 
[of  darkness  and  despair  to  be  tormented  forever;  but  you 
iwill  never  get  me  to  support  a  measure  which  I  believe  to  be 
wrong,  although  by  doing  so  I  may  accomplish  that  which 
I  believe  to  be  right/  And  the  meeting  adjourned." 

As  was  to  be  expected,  the  Democrats  charged  that  the 
iWhigs  of  Sangamon  had  won  their  victory  by  "bargain  and 
corruption."  These  charges  became  so  serious  that,  in  an 
extra  session  called  in  the  summer  of  1837,  a  few  months 
after  the  bill  passed,  Lincoln  had  a  bitter  fight  over  them 
with  General  L.  D.  Ewing,  who  wanted  to  keep  the  capital  at 
Vandalia.  "The  arrogance  of  Springfield,"  said  General 
Ewing,  "its  presumption  in  claiming  the  seat  of  government, 
is  not  to  be  endured ;  the  law  has  been  passed  by  chicanery 
and  trickery ;  the  Springfield  delegation  has  sold  out  to  the 
internal  improvement  men,  and  has  promised  its  support  to 
every  measure  that  would  gain  a  vote  to  the  law  removing 
the  seat  of  government." 

Lincoln  answered  in  a  speech  of  such  severity  and  keen- 
ness that  the  House  believed  he  was  "digging  his  own 
grave,"  for  Ewing  was  a  high-spirited  man  who  would  not 
hesitate  to  answer  by  a  challenge.  It  was,  in  fact,  only  the 
interference  of  their  friends  which  prevented  a  duel  at  this 
time  between  Ewing  and  Lincoln.  This  speech,  to  many  of 
Lincoln's  colleagues,  was  a  revelation  of  his  ability  and  char- 
acter. "This  was  the  first  time,"  said  General  Linder,  "that 
I  began  to  conceive  a  very  high  opinion  of  the  talents  and 
personal  courage  of  Abraham  Lincoln." 

A  few  months  later  the  "Long  Nine"  were  again  attacked, 
Lincoln  specially  being  abused.  The  assailant  this  time  was 


140  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

a  prominent  Democrat,  Mr.  J.  B.  Thomas.  When  he  had 
ended,  Lincoln  replied  in  a  speech  which  was  long  known  in 
local  political  circles  as  the  "skinning  of  Thomas." 

No  one  doubted  after  this  that  Lincoln  could  defend  him- 
,self.  He  became  doubly  respected  as  an  opponent,  for  his 
reputation  for  good-humored  raillery  had  already  been  estab- 
lished in  his  campaigns.  In  a  speech  made-  in  January  he 
gave  another  evidence  of  his  skill  in  the  use  of  ridicule.  A 
resolution  had  been  offered  by  Mr.  Linder  to  institute  an  in- 
quiry into  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  State  bank. 
Lincoln's  remarks  on  the  resolution  form  his  first  reported 
speech.  He  began  his  remarks  by  good-humored  but  net- 
tling chaffing  of  his  opponent. 

"Mr.  Chairman,"  he  said.  "Lest  I  should  fall  into  the  too 
common  error  of  being  mistaken  in  regard  to  which  side  I  de- 
sign to  be  upon,  I  shall  make  it  my  first  care  to  remove  all 
doubt  on  that  point,  by  declaring  that  I  am  opposed  to  the 
resolution  under  consideration,  in  toto.  Before  I  proceed  to 
the  body  of  the  subject,  I  will  further  remark,  that  it  is  not 
without  a  considerable  degree  of  apprehension  that  I  venture 
to  cross  the  track  of  the  gentleman  from  Coles  (Mr.  Linder). 
Indeed,  I  do  not  believe  I  could  muster  a  sufficiency  of  cour- 
age to  come  in  contact  with  that  gentleman,  were  it  not  for 
the  fact  that  he,  some  days  since,  most  graciously  conde- 
scended to  assure  us  that  he  would  never  be  found  wasting 
^ammunition  on  small  game.  On  the  same  fortunate  occa- 
sion he  further  gave  us  to  understand  that  he  regarded  him- 
self as  being  decidedly  the  superior  of  our  common  friend 
from  Randolph  (Mr.  -Shields)  ;  and  feeling,  as  I  really  do, 
that  I,  to  say  the  most  of  myself,  am  nothing  more  than  the 
peer  of  our  friend  from  Randolph,  I  shall  regard  the  gentle- 
man from  Coles  as  decidedly  my  superior  also;  and  conse- 
quently, in  the  course  of  what  I  shall  have  to  say,  whenever 
I  shall  have  occasion  to  allude  to  that  gentleman  I  shall  en- 
deavor to  adopt  that  kind  of  court  language  which  I  under- 
stand to  be  due  to  decided  superiority.  In  one  faculty,  at 
least,  there  can  be  no  dispute  of  the  gentleman's  superiority 


FIRST  PUBLISHED  ADDRESS  141 

over  me,  and  most  other  men ;  and  that  is,  the  faculty  of  en- 
tangling a  subject  so  that  neither  himself,  or  any  other  man, 
can  find  head  or  tail  to  it." 

Taking  up  the  resolution  on  the  bank,  he  declared  its 
meaning : 

"Some  gentlemen  have  their  stock  in  their  hands,  while 
others,  who  have  more  money  than  they  know  what  to  do 
with,  want  it ;  and  this,  and  this  alone,  is  the  question,  to  set- 
tle which  we  are  called  on  to  squander  thousands  of  the  peo- 
ple's money.  What  interest,  let  me  ask,  have  the  people  in 
the  settlement  of  this  question?  What  difference  is  it  to 
them  whether  the  stock  is  owned  by  Judge  Smith  or  Sam 
Wiggins  ?  If  any  gentleman  be  entitled  to  stock  in  the  bank, 
which  he  is  kept  out  of  possession  of  by  others,  let  him  as- 
sert his  right  in  the  Supreme  Court,  and  let  him  or  his  an- 
tagonist, whichever  may  be  found  in  the  wrong,  pay  the 
costs  of  suit.  It  is  an  old  maxim,  and  a  very  sound  one,  that 
he  that  dances  should  always  pay  the  fiddler.  Now,  sir,  in 
the  present  case,  if  any  gentlemen  whose  money  is  a  burden 
to  them,  choose  to  lead  off  a  dance,  I  am  decidedly  opposed 
to  the  people's  money  being  used  to  pay  the  fiddler.  No  one 
can  doubt  that  the  examination  proposed  by  this  resolution 
must  cost  the  State  some  ten  or  twelve  thousand  dollars ;  and 
all  this  to  settle  a  question  in  which  the  people  have  no  in- 
terest, and  about  which  they  care  nothing.  These  capitalists 
generally  act  harmoniously  and  in  concert  to  fleece  the  peo- 
ple; and  now  that  they  have  got  into  a  quarrel  with  them- 
selves, we  are  called  upon  to  appropriate  the  people's  money 
to  settle  the  quarrel." 

The  resolution  had  declared  that  the  bank  practised 
various  methods  which  were  "to  the  great  injury  of  the  peo- 
ple." Lincoln  took  the  occasion  to  announce  his  ideas  of  the 
people  and  the  politicians. 

"If  the  bank  really  be  a  grievance,  why  is  it  that  no  one  of 
the  real  people  is  found  to  ask  redress  of  it  ?  The  truth  is,  no 
such  oppression  exists.  If  it  did,  our  people  would  groan 
with  memorials  and  petitions,  and  we  would  not  be  permitted 


142  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

to  rest  day  or  night  till  we  had  put  it  down.  The  people 
know  their  rights,  and  they  are  never  slow  to  assert  and 
maintain  them  when  they  are  invaded.  Let  them  call  for  an 
investigation,  and  I  shall  ever  stand  ready  to  respond  to  the 
call.  But  they  have  made  no  such  call.  I  make  the  assertion 
boldly,  and  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  no  man  who 
does  not  hold  an  office,  or  does  not  aspire  to  one,  has  ever 
found  any  fault  of  the  bank.  It  has  doubled  the  prices  of  the 
products  of  their  farms,  and  filled  their  pockets  with  a  sound 
circulating  medium;  and  they  are  all  well  pleased  with  its 
operations.  No,  sir,  it  is  the  politician  who  is  the  first  to 
sound  the  alarm  (which,  by  the  way,  is  a  false  one).  It  is 
he  who,  by  these  unholy  means,  is  endeavoring  to  blow  up  a 
storm  that  he  may  ride  upon  and  direct.  It  is  he,  and  he 
alone,  that  here  proposes  to  spend  thousands  of  the  people's 
public  treasure,  for  no  other  advantage  to  them  than  to  make 
valueless  in  their  pockets  the  reward  of  their  industry.  Mr. 
Chairman,  this  work  is  exclusively  the  work  of  politicians — 
a  set  of  men  who  have  interests  aside  from  the  interests  of 
the  people,  and  who,  to  say  the  most  of  them,  are,  taken  as  a 
mass,  at  least  one  step  removed  from  honest  men.  I  say  this 
with  the  greater  freedom,  because,  being  a  politician  myself, 
none  can  regard  it  as  personal." 

The  speech  was  published  in  full  in  the  "Sangamon  Jour- 
nal" for  Jan.  28,  1837,  and  the  editor  commented : 

"  Mr.  Lincoln's  remarks  on  Mr.  Linder's  bank  resolution 
in  the  paper  are  quite  to  the  point.  Our  friend  carries  the 
true  Kentucky  rifle,  and  when  he  fires  he  seldom  fails  of 
sending  the  shot  home." 

One  other  act  of  his  in  this  session  cannot  be  ignored.  It 
is  a  sinister  note  in  the  hopeful  chorus  of  the  Tenth  Assem- 
bly. For  months  there  had  come  from  the  southern  States 
violent  protests  against  the  growth  of  abolition  agitation  in 
the  North.  Garrison's  paper,  the  "  infernal  Liberator,"  as  it 
was  called  in  the  pro-slavery  part  of  the  country,  had  been 
gradually  extending  its  circulation  and  its  influence;  and  it 
already  had  imitators  even  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi, 


FIRST  PUBLISHED  ADDRESS  143 

The  American  Anti-slavery  Society  was  now  over  three 
years  old.  A  deep,  unconquerable  conviction  of  the  iniquity 
of  slavery  was  spreading  through  the  North.  The  South  felt 
it  and  protested,  and  the  statesmen  of  the  North  joined  them 
in  their  protest.  Slavery  could  not  be  crushed,  said  the  con- 
servatives. It  was  sanctioned  by  the  Constitution.  The 
South  must  be  supported  in  its  claims,  and  agitation  stopped. 
But  the  agitation  went  on,  and  riots,  violence,  and  hatred 
pursued  the  agitators.  In  Illinois,  in  this  very  year,  1837,  we 
have  a  printing-office  raided  and  an  anti-slavery  editor, 
Elijah  Love  joy,  killed  by  the  citizens  of  Alton,  who  were  de- 
termined that  it  should  not  be  said  among  them  that  slavery 
was  an  iniquity. 

To  silence  the  storm,  mass-meetings  of  citizens,  the  United 
States  Congress,  the  State  legislatures,  took  up  the  question 
and  again  and  again  voted  resolutions  assuring  the  South 
that  the  Abolitionists  were  not  supported ;  that  the  country 
recognized  their  right  to  their  "  peculiar  institution,"  and 
that  in  no  case  should  they  be  interfered  with.  At  Spring- 
field, this  same  year  (1837)  the  citizens  convened  and  passed 
a  resolution  declaring  that  "the  efforts  of  Abolitionists  in  this 
community  are  neither  necessary  nor  useful."  When  the  riot 
occured  in  Alton,  the  Springfield  papers  uttered  no  word 
of  condemnation,  giving  the  affair  only  a  laconic  mention. 

The  Illinois  Assembly  joined  in  the  general  disapproval, 
and  on  March  3d  passed  the  following  resolutions : 

"Resolved  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of 
Illinois : 

"  That  we  highly  disapprove  of  the  formation  of  Abolition 
societies,  and  of  the  doctrines  promulgated  by  them. 

"  That  the  right  of  property  in  slaves  is  sacred  to  the 
slave-holding  States  by  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  that 
they  cannot  be  deprived  of  that  right  without  their  consent. 

"  That  the  General  Government  cannot  abolish  slavery  in 


144  2-IFE  OP  LINCOLN 

the  District  of  Columbia  against  the  consent  of  the  citizens  of 
said  District,  without  a  manifest  breach  of  good  faith. 

"  That  the  governor  be  requested  to  transmit  to  the  States 
of  Virginia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  New  York  and  Connecti- 
cut a  copy  of  the  foregoing  report  and  resolutions  " 

Lincoln  refused  to  vote  for  these  resolutions.  In  his  judg- 
ment no  expression  on  the  slavery  question  should  go  unac- 
companied by  the  statement  that  it  was  an  evil,  and  he  had 
the  boldness  to  protest  immediately  against  the  action  of  the 
House.  He  found  only  one  man  in  the  assembly  willing  to 
join  him  in  his  protest.  These  two  names  are  joined  to  the 
document  they  presented : 

"  Resolutions  upon  the  subject  of  domestic  slavery  having 
passed  both  branches  of  the  General  Assembly  at  its  present 
session,  the  undersigned  hereby  protest  against  the  passage 
of  the  same. 

"  They  believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  on 
both  injustice  and  bad  policy,  but  that  the  promulgation  of 
abolition  doctrines  tends  rather  to  increase  than  abate  its 
evils. 

"  They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has 
no  power  under  the  Constitution  to  interfere  with  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  in  the  different  States. 

"  They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has 
the  power  under  the  Constitution,  to  abolish  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  but  that  the  power  ought  not  to  be  ex- 
ercised, unless  at  the  request  of  the  people  of  the  District. 

"  The  difference  between  these  opinions  and  those  con- 
tained in  the  resolutions  is  their  reason  for  entering  this  pro- 
test "DAN  STONE, 

"A.  LINCOLN, 
"  Representatives  from  the  County  of  Sangamon." 

The  Tenth  Assembly  gave  Lincoln  an  opportunity  to  show 
his  ability  as  a  political  manceuvrer,  his  power  as  a  speaker, 
and  his  courage  in  opposing  what  seemed  to  him  wrong. 


FIRST  PUBLISHED  ADDRESS  145 

There  had  never  been  a  session  of  the  assembly  when  the 
members  had  the  chance  to  make  so  wide  an  impression.  The 
character  of  the  legislation  on  foot  had  called  to  Vandalia 
numbers  of  persons  of  influence  from  almost  every  part  of 
the  State.  They  were  invariably  there  to  secure  something 
for  their  town  or  county,  and  naturally  made  a  point  of  learn-* 
ing  all  they  could  of  the  members  and  of  getting  as  well  ac- 
quainted with  them  as  circumstances  allowed.  Game  suppers 
seem  to  have  been  the  means  usually  employed  by  visitors  for 
bringing  people  together,  and  Lincoln  became  a  favorite 
guest  not  only  because  he  was  necessary  to  the  success  of  al- 
most any  measure,  but  because  he  was  so  jovial  a  companion. 
It  was  then  that  he  laid  the  foundation  of  his  extensive  ac- 
quaintance throughout  the  State  which  in  after  years  stood 
him  in  excellent  stead. 

The  lobbyists  were  not  the  only  ones  in  Vandalia  who 
gave  suppers,  however.  Not  a  bill  was  passed  nor  an  election 
decided  that  a  banquet  did  not  follow.  Mr.  John  Bryant,  the 
brother  of  William  Cullen,  was  in  Vandalia  that  winter  in 
the  interest  of  his  county,  and  he  attended  one  of  these  ban- 
quets, given  by  the  successful  candidate  for  the  United  States 
Senate.  Lincoln  was  present,  of  course,  and  so  were  all  the 
prominent  politicians  of  the  State. 

"After  the  company  had  gotten  pretty  noisy  and  mellow 
from  their  imbibitions  of  Yellow  Seal  and  'corn  juice/  "  says 
Mr.  Bryant,  "Mr.  Douglas  and  General  Shields,  to  the  con- 
sternation of  the  host  and  intense  merriment  of  the  guests, 
climbed  up  on  the  table,  at  one  end,  encircled  each  other's 
waists,  and  to  the  tune  of  a  rollicking  song,  pirouetted  down 
the  whole  length  of  the  table,  shouting,  singing,  and  kick- 
ing dishes,  glasses,  and  everything  right  and  left,  helter  skel- 
ter. For  this  night  of  entertainment  to  his  constituents,  the 
successful  candidate  was  presented  with  a  bill,  in  the  morn- 
ing, for  supper,  wines,  liquors,  and  damages,  which 
amounted  to  six  hundred  dollars." 

(10) 


146  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

But  boisterous  suppers  were  not  by  any  means  the  only 
feature  of  Lincoln's  social  life  that  winter  in  Vandalia.  There 
was  another  and  quieter  side  in  which  he  showed  his  rare 
companionableness  and  endeared  himself  to  many  people.  In 
the  midst  of  the  log-rolling  and  jubilations  of  the  session  he 
would  often  slip  away  to  some  acquaintance's  room  and 
spend  hours  in  talk  and  stories.  Mr.  John  Bryant  tells  of  his 
i  coming  frequently  to  his  room  at  the  hotel,  and  sitting  "with 
his  knees  up  to  his  chin,  telling  his  inimitable  stories  and  his 
triumphs  in  the  House  in  circumventing  the  Democrats." 

Major  Newton  Walker,  of  Lewiston,  who  was  in  Vandalia 
at  the  time,  says :  "I  used  to  play  the  fiddle  a  great  deal  and 
have  played  for  Lincoln  a  number  of  times.  He  used  to  come 
over  to  where  I  was  boarding  and  ask  me  to  play,  and  I 
would  take  the  fiddle  with  me  when  I  went  over  to  visit  him, 
and  when  he  grew  weary  of  telling  stories  he  would  ask  me 
to  give  him  a  tune,  which  I  never  refused  to  do." 


CHAPTER  X 

LINCOLN  BEGINS  TO   STUDY  LAW MARY  OWENS A  NEWS- 
PAPER CONTEST GROWTH  OF  POLITICAL  INFLUENCE 

As  soon  as  the  assembly  closed,  Lincoln  returned  to  New 
Salem;  but  not  to  stay.  He  had  determined  to  go  to  Spring- 
field. Major  John  Stuart,  the  friend  who  had  advised  him 
to  study  law  and  who  had  lent  him  books  and  with  whom  he 
had  been  associated  closely  in  politics,  had  offered  to  take 
him  as  a  partner.  It  was  a  good  opening,  for  Stuart  was  one 
of  the  leading  lawyers  and  politicians  of  the  State,  and  his  in- 
fluence would  place  Lincoln  at  once  in  command  of  more  or 
less  business.  From  every  point  of  view  the  change  seems  to 
have  been  wise ;  yet  Lincoln  made  it  with  foreboding. 

To  practise  law  he  must  abandon  his  business  as  surveyor, 
which  was  bringing  him  a  fair  income;  he  must  for  a  time, 
at  least,  go  without  a  certain  income.  If  he  failed,  what 
then  ?  The  uncertainty  weighed  on  him  heavily,  the  more  so 
because  he  was  burdened  by  the  debts  left  from  his  store  and 
because  he  was  constantly  called  upon  to  aid  his  father's  fam- 
ily. Thomas  Lincoln  had  remained  in  Coles  County,  but  he 
had  not,  in  these  six  years  in  which  his  son  had  risen  so  rap- 
idly, been  able  to  get  anything  more  than  a  poor  livelihood 
from  his  farm.  The  sense  of  responsibility  Lincoln  had 
towards  his  father's  family  made  it  the  more  difficult  for  him 
to  undertake  a  new  profession.  His  decision  was  made,  how- 
ever, and  as  soon  as  the  session  of  the  Tenth  Assembly  was 
over  he  started  for  Springfield.  His  first  appearance  there  is 
as  pathetic  as  amusing. 

"He  had  ridden  into  town,"  says  Joshua  Speed,  "on  a 
borrowed  horse,  with  no  earthly  property  save  a  pair  of  sad- 

'47 


148  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

die-bags  containing1  a  few  clothes.  I  was  a  merchant  at 
Springfield,  and  kept  a  large  country  store,  embracing  dry- 
goods,  groceries,  hardware,  books,  medicines,  bed-clothes, 
mattresses — in  fact,  everything  that  the  country  needed.  Lin- 
coln came  into  the  store  with  his  saddle-bags  on  his  arm.  He 
said  he  wanted  to  buy  the  furniture  for  a  single  bed.  The 
mattress,  blankets,  sheets,  coverlid,  and  pillow,  according  to 
the  figures  made  by  me,  would  cost  seventeen  dollars.  He 
said  that  perhaps  was  cheap  enough ;  but  small  as  the  price 
was,  he  was  unable  to  pay  it.  But  if  I  would  credit  him  till 
Christmas,  and  his  experiment  as  a  lawyer  was  a  success,  he 
would  pay  then ;  saying  in  the  saddest  tone,  'If  I  fail  in  this 
I  do  not  know  that  I  can  ever  pay  you/  As  I  looked  up  at 
him  I  thought  then,  and  I  think  now,  that  I  never  saw  a  sad- 
der face. 

"I  said  to  him :  'You  seem  to  be  so  much  pained  at  con- 
tracting so  small  a  debt,  I  think  I  can  suggest  a  plan  by  which 
you  can  avoid  the  debt,  and  at  the  same  time  attain  your  end. 
I  have  a  large  room  with  a  double  bed  upstairs,  which  you  are 
very  welcome  to  share  with  me/ 

"  'Where  is  your  room  ?'  said  he. 

"  'Upstairs/  said  I,  pointing  to  a  pair  of  winding  stairs 
which  led  from  the  store  to  my  room. 

"He  took  his  saddle-bags  on  his  arm,  went  upstairs,  set 
them  on  the  floor,  and  came  down  with  the  most  changed  ex- 
pression of  countenance.  Beaming  with  pleasure,  he  ex- 
claimed : 

"  'Well,  Speed,  I  am  moved/  ' 

Another  friend,  William  Butler,  with  whom  Lincoln  had 
become  intimate  at  Vandalia,  took  him  to  board;  life  at 
Springfield  thus  began  under  as  favorable  auspices  as  he 
could  hope  for. 

After  Chicago,  Springfield  was  at  that  day  the  most  prom- 
ising city  in  Illinois.  It  had  some  fifteen  hundred  inhabitants, 
and  the  removal  of  the  capital  was  certain  to  bring  many 
more.  Already,  in  fact,  the  town  felt  the  effect.  "The  owner 
of  real  estate  sees  his  property  rapidly  enhancing  in  value," 
4eclared  the  "Sangamon  Journal ;"  "the  merchant  anticipates 


S   I 

s  l 


1    M    Q  ^j    < 

a.ag.1 


BEGINS  TO  STUDY  LAW  149 

a  large  accession  to  our  population  and  a  corresponding  addi- 
tional sale  for  his  goods;  the  mechanic  already  has  more  con- 
tracts offered  him  for  building  and  improvements  than  he 
can  execute;  the  farmer  anticipates  the  growth  of  a  large  and 
important  town,  a  market  for  the  varied  products  of  his 
farm ; — indeed,  every  class  of  our  citizens  look  to  the  future 
with  confidence,  that,  we  trust,  will  not  be  disappointed." 

The  effect  was  apparent  too,  in  society.  "We  used  to  eat 
all  together,"  said  an  old  man  who  in  the  early  thirties  came 
to  Springfield  as  a  hostler;  "but  about  this  time  some  one 
came  along  and  told  the  people  they  oughtn't  to  do  so,  and 
then  the  hired  folks  ate  in  the  kitchen."  This  differentiation 
was  apparent  to  Lincoln  and  a  little  discouraging.  He  was 
thinking  at  the  time  of  this  removal  of  marrying,  but  he  soon 
saw  that  it  was  quite  out  of  the  question  for  him  to  support  a 
wife  in  Springfield. 

"I  am  afraid  you  would  not  be  satisfied,"  he  wrote  the 
young  woman,  "  there  is  a  great  deal  of  flourishing  about  in 
carriages  here,  which  it  would  be  your  doom  to  see  without 
sharing  it.  You  would  have  to  be  poor,  without  the  means  of 
hiding  your  poverty.  Do  you  believe  you  could  bear  that  pa- 
tiently?" 

Lincoln's  idea  of  marrying  Mary  Owens,  of  whom  he 
asked  this  question,  was  the  result  of  a  Quixotic  sense  of 
honor  which  had  curiously  blinded  him  to  the  girl's  real  feel- 
ing for  him.  The  affair  had  begun  in  the  fall  of  1836,  when 
a  woman  of  his  acquaintance  who  was  going  to  Kentucky 
on  a  visit,  proposed  laughingly  to  bring  back  a  sister  of  hers 
on  condition  that  Lincoln  marry  her. 

"  I  of  course  accepted  the  proposal,"  Lincoln  wrote 
afterwards  in  a  letter  to  Mrs.  O.  H.  Browning,  "for  you 
know  I  could  not  have  done  otherwise  had  I  really  been 
averse  to  it;  but  privately,  between  you  and  me,  I  was 


ISO  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

most  confoundedly  well  pleased  with  the  project.  I  had 
seen  the  said  sister  some  three  years  before,  thought 
her  intelligent  and  agreeable,  and  saw  no  good  objec- 
tion to  plodding  life  through  hand  in  hand  with  her.  Time 
passed  on,  the  lady  took  her  journey  and  in  due  time  re- 
turned, sister  in  company,  sure  enough.  This  astonished  me 
a  little,  for  it  appeared  to  me  that  her  coming  so  readily 
showed  that  she  was  a  trifle  too  willing,  but  on  reflection  it 
occurred  to  me  that  she  might  have  been  prevailed  on  by  her 
married  sister  to  come,  without  anything  concerning  me  ever 
having  been  mentioned  to  her,  and  so  I  concluded  that  if  no 
other  objection  presented  itself,  I  would  consent  to  waive 
this." 

Another  objection  did  present  itself  as  soon  as  he  saw  the 
lady.  He  was  anything  but  pleased  with  her  appearance. 

"But  what  could  I  do  ?"  he  continues  in  his  letter  to  Mrs. 
Browning.  "I  had  told  her  sister  that  I  would  take  her  for 
better  or  for  worse,  and  I  made  a  point  of  honor  and  con- 
science in  all  things  to  stick  to  my  word,  especially  if  others 
had  been  induced  to  act  on  it,  which  in  this  case  I  had  no 
doubt  they  had,  for  I  was  now  fairly  convinced  that  no  other 
man  on  earth  would  have  her,  and  hence  the  conclusion  that 
they  were  bent  on  holding  me  to  my  bargain.  'Well,  thought 
I,  'I  have  said  it,  and,  be  the  consequences  what  they  may,  it 
shall  not  be  my  fault  if  I  fail  to  do  it.'  At  once  I  determined 
to  consider  her  my  wife,  and  this  done,  all  my  powers  of  dis- 
covery were  put  to  work  in  search  of  perfections  in  her  which 
might  be  fairly  set  off  against  her  defects.  I  tried  to  imagine 
her  handsome,  which,  but  for  her  unfortunate  corpulency, 
was  actually  true.  Exclusive  of  this,  no  woman  that  I  have 
ever  seen  has  a  finer  face.  I  also  tried  to  convince  myself  that 
the  mind  was  much  more  to  be  valued  than  the  person,  and 
in  this  she  was  not  inferior,  as  I  could  discover,  to  any  with 
whom  I  had  been  acquainted. 

"Shortly  after  this,  without  attempting  to  come  to  any 
positive  understanding  with  her,  I  set  out  for  Vandalia,  when 
and  where  you  first  saw  me.  During  my  stay  there  I  had  let- 


BEGINS  TO  STUDY  LAW  151 

ters  from  her  which  did  not  change  my  opinion  of  either  her 
intellect  or  intention,  but,  on  the  contrary,  confirmed  it  in 
both. 

"All  this  while,  although  I  was  fixed  'firm  as  the  surge-re- 
pelling rock'  in  my  resolution,  I  found  I  was  continually  re- 
penting the  rashness  which  had  led  me  to  make  it.  Through 
life  I  have  been  in  no  bondage,  either  real  or  imaginary,  from 
the  thraldom  of  which  I  so  much  desired  to  be  free.  After 
my  return  home  I  saw  nothing  to  change  my  opinion  of  her 
in  any  particular.  She  was  the  same,  and  so  was  I.  I  now 
spent  my  time  in  planning  how  I  might  get  along  in  life  after 
my  contemplated  change  of  circumstances  should  have  taken 
place,  and  how  I  might  procrastinate  the  evil  day  for  a  time, 
which  I  really  dreaded  as  much,  perhaps  more,  than  an 
Irishman  does  the  halter." 

Lincoln  was  in  this  state  of  mind  when  he  went  to  Spring- 
field and  discovered  how  unfit  his  resources  were  to  support 
a  wife  there.  Although  he  put  the  question  of  poverty  so 
plainly  he  assured  Miss  Owens  that  if  she  married  him  he 
would  do  all  in  his  power  to  make  her  happy. 

"Whatever  woman  may  cast  her  lot  with  mine,"  He  wrote 
her,  "should  any  ever  do  so,  it  is  my  intention  to  do  all  in  my 
power  to  make  her  happy  and  contented ;  and  there  is  noth- 
ing I  can  imagine  that  would  make  me  more  unhappy  than  to 
fail  in  the  effort.  I  know  I  should  be  much  happier  with  you 
than  the  way  I  am,  provided  I  saw  no  signs  of  discontent  in 
you.  What  you  have  said  to  me  may  have  been  in  the  way 
of  jest,  or  I  may  have  misunderstood  it.  If  so,  then  let  it  be 
forgotten ;  if  otherwise,  I  much  wish  you  would  think  seri- 
ously before  you  decide.  What  I  have  said  I  will  most  posi- 
tively abide  by,  provided  you  wish  it.  My  opinion  is  that 
you  had  better  not  do  it.  You  have  not  been  accustomed  to 
hardship,  and  it  may  be  more  serious  than  you  now  imagine. 
I  know  you  are  capable  of  thinking  correctly  on  any  subject, 
and  if  you  deliberate  maturely  upon  this  before  you  decide, 
then  I  am  willing  to  abide  your  decision.'!. 


15*  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

This  decidedly  dispassionate  view  of  their  relation  seems 
not  to  have  brought  any  decision  from  Miss  Owens;  for 
three  months  later  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  her  an  equally  judicial 
letter,  telling  her  that  he  could  not  think  of  her  "  with  en- 
tire indifference,"  that  he  in  all  cases  wanted  to  do  right  and 
"most  particularly  so  in  all  cases  with  women,"  and  summing 
tip  his  position  as  follows : 

"I  now  say  that  you  can  now  drop  the  subject,  dismiss 
your  thoughts  (if  you  ever  had  any)  from  me  forever,  and 
leave  this  letter  unanswered,  without  calling  forth  one  ac- 
cusing murmur  from  me.  And  I  will  even  go  further,  and 
say  that  if  it  will  add  anything  to  your  comfort  or  peace  of 
mind  to  do  so,  it  is  my  sincere  wish  that  you  should.  Do  not 
understand  by  this  that  I  wish  to  cut  your  acquaintance.  I 
mean  no  such  thing. 

"What  I  do  wish  is  that  our  further  acquaintance  shall  de- 
pend upon  yourself.  If  such  further  acquaintance  would 
contribute  nothing  to  your  happiness,  I  am  sure  it  would  not 
to  mine.  If  you  feel  yourself  in  any  degree  bound  to  me,  I  am 
now  willing  to  release  you,  provided  you  wish  it ;  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  I  am  willing  and  even  anxious  to  bind  you 
faster,  if  I  can  be  convinced  that  it  will,  in  any  considerable 
degree,  add  to  your  happiness.  This,  indeed,  is  the  whole 
question  with  me.  Nothing  would  make  me  more  miserable 
than  to  believe  you  miserable — nothing  more  happy  than  to 
know  you  were  so." 

Miss  Owens  had  enough  discernment  to  recognize  the  dis- 
interestedness of  this  love-making,  and  she  refused  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's offer.  She  found  him  "deficient  in  those  little  links 
which  make  up  the  chain  of  a  woman's  happiness,"  she  said. 
When  finally  refused  Lincoln  wrote  the  letter  to  Mrs.  Brown- 
ing from  which  the  above  citations  have  been  taken.  He  con- 
cluded it  with  an  account  of  the  effect  on  himself  of  Miss 
Owens'  refusal: 

"  I  was  mortified,  it  seemed  to  me,  in  a  hundred  different 
ways.  My  vanity  was  deeply  wounded  by  the  reflection  that 


BEGINS  TO  STUDY  LAW  153 

I  had  so  long  been  too  stupid  to  discover  her  intentions,  and 
at  the  same  time  never  doubting  that  I  understood  them  per- 
fectly; and  also  that  she,  whom  I  had  taught  myself  to  be- 
lieve nobody  else  would  have,  had  actually  rejected  me  with 
all  my  fancied  greatness.  And,  to  cap  the  whole,  I  then  for 
the  first  time  began  to  suspect  that  I  was  really  a  little  in  love 
with  her.  But  let  it  all  go !  I'll  try  and  outlive  it.  Others 
have  been  made  fools  of  by  the  girls,  but  this  can  never  with 
truth  be  said  of  me.  I  most  emphatically,  in  this  instance, 
made  a  fool  of  myself.  I  have  now  come  to  the  conclusion 
never  again  to  think  of  marrying,  and  for  this  reason — I  can 
never  be  satisfied  with  any  one  who  would  be  blockhead 
enough  to  have  me." 

The  skill,  the  courage,  and  the  good-will  Lincoln  had 
shown  in  his  management  of  the  bill  for  the  removal  of  the 
capital  gave  him  at  once  a  position  in  Springfield.  The  entire 
"Long  Nine,"  indeed,  were  regarded  by  the  county  as  its 
benefactors,  and  throughout  the  summer  there  were  barbe- 
cues and  fireworks,  dinners  and  speeches  in  their  honor.  "The 
service  rendered  Old  Sangamon  by  the  present  delegation" 
was  a  continually  recurring  toast  at  every  gathering.  At  one 
"sumptuous  dinner"  the  internal  improvement  scheme  in  all 
its  phases  was  toasted  again  and  again  by  the  banqueters. 
"  'The  Long  Nine'  of  Old  Sangamon — well  done,  good  and 
faithful  servants,"  drew  forth  long  applause.  Among  those 
who  offered  volunteer  toasts  at  this  dinner  were  "A.  Lincoln, 
Esq.,"  and  "S.  A.  Douglas,  Esq." 

At  a  dinner  at  Athens,  given  to  the  delegation,  eight  for- 
mal toasts  and  twenty-five  volunteers  are  quoted  in  the  re- 
port of  the  affair  in  the  "Sangamon  Journal."  Among  them 
were  the'  following : 

A.  Lincoln.    He  has  fulfilled    the  expectations    of    his 
friends  and  disappointed  the  hopes  of  his  enemies. 
A.  Lincoln.  One  of  nature's  noblemen. 
By  A.  Lincoln.  Sangamon  County  will  ever  be  true  to  her 


BEGINS  TO  STUDY  LAW  155 

best  interests,  and  never  more  so  than  in  reciprocating  the 
good  feelings  of  the  citizens  of  Athens  and  neighborhood. 

Lincoln  had  not  been  long  in  Springfield  before  he  was 
able  to  support  himself  from  his  law  practice,  a  result  due,  no 
doubt,  very  largely  to  his  personal  qualities  and  to  his  repu- 
tation as  a  shrewd  politician.  Not  that  he  made  money.  The 
fee-book  of  Lincoln  and  Stuart  shows  that  the  returns  were 
modest  enough,  and  that  sometimes  they  even  "traded  out" 
their  account.  Nevertheless  it  was  a  satisfaction  to  earn  a 
livelihood  so  soon.  Of  his  peculiar  methods  as  a  lawyer  at 
this  date  we  know  very  little.  Most  of  his  cases  are  utterly 
uninteresting.  The  very  first  year  he  was  in  Springfield, 
however,  he  had  one  case  which  created  a  sensation,  and 
which  is  an  admirable  example  of  the  way  he  could  combine 
business  and  politics  as  well  as  of  his  merciless  persistency  in 
pursuing  a  man  whom  he  believed  unjust. 

It  seems  that  among  the  offices  to  be  filled  at  the  August 
election  of  1837  was  that  of  probate  justice  of  the  peace.  One 
of  the  candidates  was  General  James  Adams,  a  man  who  had 
come  on  from  the  East  in  the  early  twenties,  and  who  had  at 
first  claimed  to  be  a  lawyer.  He  had  been  an  aspirant  for 
various  offices,  among  them  that  of  governor  of  the  State, 
but  with  little  success.  A  few  days  before  the  August  elec- 
tion of  1837  an  anonymous  hand-bill  was  scattered  about  the 
streets.  It  was  an  attack  on  General  Adams,  charging  him 
with  having  acquired  the  title  to  a  ten-acre  lot  of  ground  near 
the  town  by  the  deliberate  forgery  of  the  name  of  Joseph  An- 
derson, of  Fulton  County,  Illinois,  to  an  assignment  of  a 
judgment.  Anderson  had  died,  and  his  widow,  going  to 
Springfield  to  dispose  of  the  land,  had  been  surprised  to  find 
that  it  was  claimed  by  General  Adams.  She  had  employed 
Stuart  and  Lincoln  to  look  into  the  matter.  The  hand-bill, 
which  went  into  all  of  the  details  at  great  length,  concluded 
as  follows:  "I  have  only  made  these  statements  because  I 


156  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

am  known  by  many  to  be  one  of  the  individuals  against 
whom  the  charge  of  forging  the  assignment  and  slipping  it 
into  the  general's  papers  has  been  made ;  and  because  our  si- 
lence might  be  construed  into  a  confession  of  the  truth.  I 
shall  not  subscribe  my  name ;  but  hereby  authorize  the  editor 
of  the  'Journal'  to  give  it  up  to  any  one  who  may  call  for  it." 

After  the  election,  at  which  General  Adams  was  successful, 
the  hand-bill  was  reproduced  in  the  "Sangamon  Journal," 
with  a  card  signed  by  the  editor,  in  which  he  said :  'To  save 
any  further  remarks  on  this  subject,  I  now  state  that  A.  Lin- 
coln, Esq.,  is  the  author  of  the  hand-bill  in  question."  The 
same  issue  of  the  paper  contained  a  lengthy  communication 
from  General  Adams,  denying  the  charge  of  fraud. 

The  controversy  was  continued  for  several  weeks  in  the 
newspapers,  General  Adams  often  filling  six  columns  of  a 
single  issue  of  the  "Springfield  Republican." 

He  charged  that  the  assault  upon  him  was  the  result  of  a 
conspiracy  between  "a  knot  of  lawyers,  doctors,  and  others," 
who  wished  to  ruin  his  reputation.  Lincoln's  answers  to 
Adams  are  most  emphatic.  In  one  case,  quoting  several  of 
his  assertions,  he  pronounced  them  "all  as  false  as  hell,  as 
all  this  community  must  know."  Adams's  replies  were  al- 
ways voluminous.  "Such  is  the  turn  which  things  have  lately 
taken,"  wrote  Lincoln,  "that  when  General  Adams  writes  a 
book  I  am  expected  to  write  a  commentary  on  it."  Replying 
to  Adams's  denunciation  of  the  lawyers,  he  said :  "He  at- 
tempted to  impose  himself  upon  the  community  as  a  lawyer, 
and  he  actually  carried  the  attempt  so  far  as  to  induce  a  man 
who  was  under  the  charge  of  murder  to  entrust  the  defence 
of  his  life  to  his  hands,  and  finally  took  his  money  and  got 
him  hanged.  Is  this  the  man  that  is  to  raise  a  breeze  in  his 
favor  by  abusing  lawyers  ?  .  .  .  If  he  is  not  a  lawyer, 
he  is  a  liar ;  for  he  proclaimed  himself  a  lawyer,  and  got  a 
man  hanged  by  depending  on  him."  Lincoln  concluded: 


BEGINS  TO  STUDY  LAW  157 

"Farewell,  General.  I  will  see  you  again  at  court,  if  not  be- 
fore— when  and  where  we  will  settle  the  question  whether 
you  or  the  widow  shall  have  the  land."  The  widow  did  get 
the  land,  but  this  was  not  the  worst  thing  that  happened  to 
Adams.  The  climax  was  reached  when  the  "Sangamon  Jour- 
nal" published  a  long  editorial  (written  by  Lincoln,  no 
doubt)  on  the  controversy,  and  followed  it  with  a  copy  of  an 
indictment  found  against  Adams  in  Oswego  County,  New 
York,  in  1818.  The  offence  charged  in  this  indictment  was 
the  forgery  of  a  deed  by  Adams — "a  person  of  evil  name  and 
fame  and  of  a  wicked  disposition." 

Lincoln's  victory  in  this  controversy  undoubtedly  did 
much  to  impress  the  community,  not  necessarily  that  he  was 
a  good  lawyer,  but  rather  that  he  was  a  clever  strategist  and 
a  fearless  enemy.  It  was  not,  in  fact,  as  a  lawyer  that  he  was 
prominent  in  the  first  years  after  he  came  to  Springfield.  It 
was  as  a  politician.  The  place  he  had  taken  among  the  lead- 
ers of  the  Whig  party  in  the  winter  of  1836  and  1837  ne 
easily  kept.  The  qualities  which  he  had  shown  from  the  out- 
start  of  his  public  life  were  only  strengthened  as  he  gained 
experience  and  self-confidence.  He  was  the  terror  of  the  pre- 
tentious and  insincere,  and  had  a  way  of  exposing  their 
sharns  by  clever  tricks  which  were  unanswerable  arguments. 
Thus,  it  was  considered  necessary,  at  that  day,  by  a  candi- 
date to  prove  to  the  farmers  that  he  was  poor  and,  like  them- 
selves, horny-handed.  Those  politicians  who  wore  gt>od 
clothes  and  dined  sumptuously  were  careful  to  conceal  their 
regard  for  the  elegancies  of  life  from  their  constituents. 
One  of  the  Democrats  who  in  this  period  took  particu- 
lar pains  to  decry  the  Whigs  for  their  wealth  and 
aristocratic  principles  was  Colonel  Dick  Taylor,  gen- 
erally known  in  Illinois  as  "ruffled-shirt  Taylor."  He 
was  a  vain  and  handsome  man,  who  habitually  ar- 
rayed himself  as  gorgeously  as  the  fashion  allowed. 


158  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

One  day  when  he  and  Lincoln  had  met  in  debate  at  a  coun- 
tryside gathering,  Colonel  Dick  became  particularly  bitter 
in  his  condemnation  of  Whig  elegance.  Lincoln  listened  for 
a  time,  and  then,  slipping  near  the  speaker,  suddenly  caught 
his  coat,  which  was  buttoned  up  close,  and  tore  it  open.  A 
mass  of  ruffled  shirt,  a  gorgeous  velvet  vest,  and  a  great  gold 
chain  from  which  dangled  numerous  rings  and  seals,  were 
uncovered  to  the  crowd.  Lincoln  needed  to  make  no  further 
reply  that  day  to  the  charge  of  being  a  "rag  baron." 

Lincoln  loved  fair  play  as  he  hated  shams ;  and  through- 
out these  early  years  in  Springfield  boldly  insisted  that 
friend  and  enemy  have  the  chance  due  them.  A  dram- 
atic case  of  this  kind  occurred  at  a  political  meeting 
held  one  evening  in  the  Springfield  court-room,  which  at 
that  date  was  temporarily  in  a  hall  under  Stuart  and  Lin- 
coln's law  office.  Directly  over  the  platform  was  a  trap-door. 
Lincoln  frequently  would  lie  by  this  opening  during  a  meet- 
ing, listening  to  the  speeches.  One  evening  one  of  his 
friends,  E.  D.  Baker,  in  speaking  angered  the  crowd,  and  an 
attempt  was  made  to  "pull  him  down."  Before  the  assailants 
could  reach  the  platform,  however,  a  pair  of  long  legs 
dangled  from  the  trap-door,  and  in  an  instant  Lincoln 
dropped  down  beside  Baker,  crying  out,  "Hold  on,  gentle- 
men, this  is  a  land  of  free  speech."  His  appearance  was  so 
unexpected,  and  his  attitude  so  determined,  that  the  crowd 
soon  was  quiet,  and  Baker  went  on  with  his  speech. 
,  Lincoln  did  not  take  a  prominent  place  in  his  party 
because  the  Whigs  lacked  material.  He  had  powerful 
rivals.  Edward  Dickinson  Baker,  Colonel  John  J.  Har- 
din,  John  T.  Stuart,  Ninian  W.  Edwards,  Jesse  K. 
Dubois,  O.  H.  Browning,  were  but  a  few  of  the  brilliant 
men  who  were  throwing  all  their  ability  and  ambition  into 
the  contest  for  political  honors  in  the  State.  Nor  were  the 
Whigs  a  whit  superior  to  the  Democrats.  William  L.  D.  Ew- 


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BEGINS  TO  STUDY  LAW  159 

ing,  Ebenezer  Peck,  William  Thomas,  James  Shields,  John 
Calhoun,  were  in  every  respect  as  able  as  the  best  men  of  the 
Whig  party.  Indeed,  one  of  the  prominent  Democrats  with 
whom  Lincoln  came  often  in  contact,  was  popularly  regarded 
as  the  most  brilliant  and  promising  politician  of  the  State — 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.  His  record  had  been  phenomenal.  He 
had  amazed  both  parties,  in  1834,  by  securing  the  appoint- 
ment by  the  legislature  to  the  office  of  State  Attorney  for  the 
first  judicial  circuit,  over  John  J.  Hardin.  In  1836  he  had 
been  elected  to  the  legislature,  and  although  he  was  at  that 
time  but  twenty-three  years  of  age,  he  had  shown  himself  one 
of  the  most  vigorous,  capable,  and  intelligent  members.  In- 
deed, Douglas's  work  in  the  Tenth  Assembly  gave  him  about 
the  same  position  in  the  Democratic  party  of  the  State  at 
large  that  Lincoln's  work  in  the  same  body  gave  him  in  the 
Whig  party  of  his  own  district.  In  1837  he  had  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  being  appointed  register  of  the  land  office,  a  position 
which  compelled  him  to  make  his  home  in  Springfield.  It 
was  only  a  few  months  after  Lincoln  rode  into  town,  all  his 
earthly  possessions  in  a  pair  of  saddle-bags,  that  Douglas  ap- 
peared. Handsome,  polished,  and  always  with  an  air  of  pros- 
perity, the  advent  of  the  young  Democratic  official  was  in 
striking  contrast  to  that  of  the  sad-eyed,  ill-clad,  poverty- 
stricken  young  lawyer  from  New  Salem. 

From  the  first,  Lincoln  and  Douglas  were  thrown  con- 
stantly together  in  the  social  life  of  the  town,  and  often 
pitted  against  each  other  in  what  were  the  real  forums  of  the 
State  at  that  day — the  space  around  the  huge  "Franklin" 
stove  of  some  obliging  store-keeper,  the  steps  of  somebody's 
law  office,  a  pile  of  lumber,  or  a  long  timber,  lying  in  the  pub- 
lic square,  where  the  new  State-house  was  going  up. 

In  the  fall  of  1837  Douglas  was  nominated  for  Congress 
on  the  Democratic  ticket.  His  Whig  opponent  was  Lincoln's 
law  partner,  John  T.  Stuart.  The  campaign  which  the  two 


100  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

conducted  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of 
the  State.  For  five  months  of  the  spring  and  summer  of  1838 
they  rode  together  from  town  to  town  all  over  the  northern 
part  of  Illinois  (Illinois  at  that  time  was  divided  into  but 
three  congressional  districts ;  the  third,  in  which  Sangamon 
county  was  included,  being  made  up  of  the  twenty-two  north- 
ernmost counties),  speaking  six  days  out  of  seven.  When  the 
election  came  off  in  August,  1838,  out  of  thirty-six  thousand 
votes  cast,  Stuart  received  a  majority  of  only  fourteen ;  but 
even  that  majority  the  Democrats  always  contended  was  won 
unfairly. 

The  campaign  was  watched  with  intense  interest  by  the 
young  politicians  of  Springfield;  no  one  of  them  felt  a 
deeper  interest  in  it  than  Lincoln,  who  was  himself  a  candi- 
date for  the  State  legislature,  and  who  was  spending  a  great 
deal  of  his  time  in  electioneering. 

As  the  campaign  of  1840  approached  Lincoln  was  more 
and  more  frequently  pitted  against  Douglas.  He  had  by  this 
time  no  doubt  learned  something  of  the  power  of  the  "Little 
Giant,"  as  Douglas  was  already  called.  Certainly  no  man  in 
public  life  between  1837  and  1860  had  a  greater  hold  on  his 
followers.  The  reasons  for  this  grasp  are  not  hard  to  find. 
Douglas  was  by  nature  buoyant,  enthusiastic,  impetuous.  He 
had  that  sunny  boyishness  which  is  so  irresistible  to  young 
and  old.  With  it  he  had  great  natural  eloquence.  When  his 
deep,  rich  voice  rolled  out  fervid  periods  in  support  of  the 
sub-treasury  and  the  convention  system,  or  in  opposition  to 
internal  improvements  by  the  federal  government,  the  people 
applauded  out  of  sheer  joy  at  the  pleasure  of  hearing  him. 
He  was  one  of  the  few  men  in  Illinois  whom  the  epithet  of 
"Yankee"  never  hurt.  He  might  be  a  Yankee,  but  when  he 
sat  down  on  the  knee  of  some  surly  lawyer,  and  confidentially 
told  him  his  plans ;  or,  at  a  political  meeting,  took  off  his  coat, 


BEGINS  TO  STUDY  LAW  161 

and  rolled  up  his  sleeves,  and  "pitched  into"  his  opponent, 
the  sons  of  Illinois  forgot  his  origin  in  love  for  the  man. 

Lincoln  undoubtedly  understood  the  charm  of  Douglas, 
and  realized  his  power.  But  he  already  had  an  insight  into 
one  of  his  political  characteristics  that  few  people  recognized 
at  that  day.  In  writing  to  Stuart  in  1839,  while  the  latter 
wa,s  attending  Congress,  Lincoln  said:  "Douglas  has  not 
been  here  since  you  left.  A  report  is  in  circulation  here  now 
thai  he  has  abandoned  the  idea  of  going  to  Washington, 
though  the  report  does  not  come  in  a  very  authentic  form,  so 
far  as  I  can  learn.  Though,  by  the  way,  speaking  of  authen- 
ticity, you  know  that  if  we  had  heard  Douglas  say  that  he 
had  abandoned  the  contest,  it  would  not  be  very  authentic." 

At  that  time  the  local  issues,  which  had  formerly  engaged 
Illinois  candidates  almost  entirely,  were  lost  sight  of  in  na- 
tional questions.  In  Springfield,  where  the  leaders  of  both 
parties  were  living,  many  hot  debates  were  held  in 
private.  Out  of  these  grew,  in  December,  1839,  a  series  of 
public  discussions,  extending  over  eight  evenings,  and  in 
which  several  of  the  first  orators  of  the  State  took  part. 
Lincoln  was  the  last  man  on  the  list.  The  people  were  nearly 
worn  out  before  his  turn  came,  and  his  audience  was  small. 
He  began  his  speech  with  some  melancholy,  self -deprecatory 
reflections,  complaining  that  the  small  audience  cast  a  damp 
upon  his  spirits  which  he  was  sure  he  would  be  unable  to 
overcome  during  the  evening.  He  did  better  than  he  ex- 
pected, overcoming  the  damp  on  his  spirits  so  effectually  that 
he  made  what  was  regarded  as  the  best  speech  of  the  series. 
By  a  general  request,  it  was  printed  for  distribution.  The 
speech  is  peculiarly  interesting  from  the  fact  that  while  there 
is  a  little  of  the  perfervid  eloquence  of  1840  in  it,  as  well  as 
a  good  deal  of  the  rather  boisterous  humor  of  the  time,  a  part 
of  \L  is  devoted  to  a  careful  examination  of  the  statements  of 


1 62  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

his  opponents,  and  a  refutation  of  them  by  means  of  public 
documents. 

As  a  good  Democrat  was  expected  to  do,  Douglas  had  ex- 
plained with  plausibility  why  the  Van  Buren  administration 
had  in  1838  spent  $40,000,000.  Lincoln  takes  up  his  state- 
ments one  by  one,  and  proves,  as  he  says,  that  "the  majority 
of  them  are  wholly  untrue."  Douglas  had  attributed  a  part 
of  the  expenditures  to  the  purchase  of  public  lands  from  the 
Indians. 

"Now  it  happens,"  said  Lincoln,  "that  no  such  purchase 
was  made  during  that  year.  It  is  true  that  some  money 
was  paid  that  year  in  pursuance  of  Indian  treaties;  but  no 
more,  or  rather  not  as  much  as  had  been  paid  on  the  same 

account  in  each  of  several  preceding  years Again, 

Mr.  Douglas  says  that  the  removal  of  the  Indians  to  the 
country  west  of  the  Mississippi  created  much  of  the  expendi- 
ture of  1838.  I  have  examined  the  public  documents  in  rela- 
tion to  this  matter,  and  find  that  less  was  paid  for  the  re- 
moval of  Indians  in  that  than  in  some  former  years.  The 
whole  sum  expended  on  that  account  in  that  year  did  not 
much  exceed  one  quarter  of  a  million.  For  this  small  sum, 
although  we  do  not  think  the  administration  entitled  to 
credit,  because  large  sums  have  been  expended  in  the  same 
way  in  former  years,  we  consent  it  may  take  one  and  make 
the  most  of  it. 

"Next,  Mr.  Douglas  says  that  five  millions  of  the  expendi- 
tures of  1838  consisted  of  the  payment  of  the  French  in- 
demnity money  to  its  individual  claimants.  I  have  carefully 
examined  the  public  documents,  and  thereby  find  this  state- 
ment to  be  wholly  untrue.  Of  the  forty  millions  of  dollars 
expended  in  1838, 1  am  enabled  to  say  positively  that  not  one 
dollar  consisted  of  payments  on  the  French  indemnities.  So 
much  for  that  excuse. 

"Next  comes  the  Post-office.  He  says  that  five  millions 
were  expended  during  that  year  to  sustain  that  department. 
By  a  like  examination  of  public  documents,  I  find  this  also 
wholly  untrue.  Of  the  so  often  mentioned  forty  millions,  not 
one  dollar  went  to  the  Post-office.  .  .  . 


BEGINS  TO  STUDY  LAW  163 

"I  return  to  another  of  Mr.  Douglas's  excuses  for  the  ex- 
penditures of  1838,  at  the  same  time  announcing  the  pleas- 
ing intelligence  that  this  is  the  last  one.  He  says  that  ten  mil- 
lions of  that  year's  expenditure  was  a  contingent  appropria- 
tion, to  prosecute  an  anticipated  war  with  Great  Britain  on 
the  Maine  boundary  question.  Few  words  will  settle  this. 
First,  that  the  ten  millions  appropriated  was  not  made  till 
1839,  and  consequently  could  not  have  been  expended  in 
1838;  second,  although  it  was  appropriated,  it  has  never  been 
expended  at  all.  Those  who  heard  Mr.  Douglas  recollect 
that  he  indulged  himself  in  a  contemptuous  expression  of 
pity  for  me.  'Now  he's  got  me/  thought  I.  But  when  he 
went  on  to  say  that  five  millions  of  the  expenditure  of  1838 
were  payments  of  the  French  indemnities,  which  I  knew  to 
be  untrue;  that  five  millions  had  been  for  the  Post-office, 
which  I  knew  to  be  untrue ;  that  ten  millions  had  been  for  the 
Maine  boundary  war,  which  I  not  only  knew  to  be  untrue, 
but  supremely  ridiculous  also;  and  when  I  saw  that  he  was 
stupid  enough  to  hope  that  I  would  permit  such  groundless 
and  audacious  assertions  to  go  unexposed, — I  readily  con- 
sented that,  on  the  score  both  of  veracity  and  sagacity,  the 
audience  should  judge  whether  he  or  I  were  the  more  de- 
serving of  the  world's  contempt." 

These  citations  show  that  Lincoln  had  already  learned  to 
handle  public  documents,  and  to  depend  for  at  least  a  part  of 
his  success  with  an  audience  upon  a  careful  statement  of 
facts.  The  methods  used  in  at  least  a  portion  of  this  speech 
are  exactly  those  which  made  the  irresistible  strength  of  his 
speeches  in  1858,  1859,  and  1860. 

But  there  was  little  of  as  good  work  done  in  the  campaign 
of  1840,  by  Lincoln  or  anybody  else,  as  is  found  in  this 
speech.  It  was  a  campaign  of  fun  and  noise,  and  nowhere 
more  so  than  in  Illinois.  Lincoln  was  one  of  the  five  Whig 
Presidential  electors,  and  he  flung  himself  into  the  campaign 
with  confidence.  "The  nomination  of  Harrison  takes  first 
rate,"  he  wrote  to  his  partner  Stuart,  then  in  Washington. 
"You  know  I  am  never  sanguine,  but  I  believe  we  will  carry 


1  64  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

the  State.  The  chance  of  doing  so  appears  to  me  twenty-five 
per  cent,  better  than  it  did  for  you  to  beat  Douglas."  The 
Whigs,  in  spite  of  their  dislike  of  the  convention  system,  or- 
ganized as  they  never  had  before,  and  even  sent  out  a  "confi- 
dential" circular  of  which  Lincoln  was  the  author. 

This  circular  provided  for  a  remarkably  complete  organi- 
zation of  the  State,  as  the  following  extracts  will  show  : 

After  due  deliberation,  the  following  is  the  plan  of  or- 
ganization, and  the  duties  required  of  each  county  commit- 
tee: 

(  i  )  To  divide  their  county  into  small  districts,  and  to  ap- 
point in  each  a  subcommittee,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  make 
a  perfect  list  of  all  the  voters  in  their  respective  districts,  and 
to  ascertain  with  certainty  for  whom  they  will  vote.  If  they 
meet  with  men  who  are  doubtful  as  to  the  man  they  will  sup- 
port, such  voters  should  be  designated  in  separate  lines,  with 
the  name  of  the  man  they  will  probably  support. 

(2)  It  will  be  the  duty  of  said  subcommittee  to  keep  a 
constant  watch  on  the  doubtful  voters,  and  from  time  to  time 
have  them  talked  to  by  those  in  whom  they  have  the  most 
confidence,  and  also  to  place  in  their  hands  such  documents 
as  will  enlighten  and  influence  them. 

(5)  On  the  first  of  each  month  hereafter  we  shall  expect 
to  hear  from  you.     After  the  first  report  of  your  subcommit- 
tees, unless  there  should  be  found  a  great  many  doubtful 
voters,  you  can  tell  pretty  accurately  the  manner  in  which 
your  county  will  vote.  In  each  of  your  letters  to  us,  you  will 
state  the  number  of  certain  votes  both  for  and  against  us,  as 
well  as  the  number  of  doubtful  votes,  with  your  opinion  of 
the  manner  in  which  they  will  be  cast. 

(6)  When  we  have  heard  from  all  the  counties,  we  shall 
be  able  to  tell  with  similar  accuracy  the  political  complexion 
of  the  State.   This  information  will  be  forwarded  to  you  as 
soon  as  received. 


Every  weapon  Lincoln  thought  of  possible  use  in  the 
test  he  secured.   "Be  sure  to  send  me  as  many  copies  of  the 


BEGINS  TO  STUDY  LAW  165 

'Life  of  Harrison'  as  you  can  spare  from  other  uses,"  he 
wrote  Stuart.  "Be  very  sure  to  procure  and  send  me  the 
'Senate  Journal'  of  New  York,  of  September,  1814.  I  have  a 
newspaper  article  which  says  that  that  document  proves  that 
Van  Buren  voted  against  raising  troops  in  the  last  war. 
And,  in  general,  send  me  everything  you  think  will  be  a  good 
'war-club.'  " 

Every  sign  of  success  he  quoted  to  Stuart ;  the  number  of 
subscribers  to  the  "Old  Soldier,"  a  campaign  newspaper 
which  the  Whig  committee  had  informed  the  Whigs  of  the 
State  that  they  "must  take;"  the  names  of  Van  Buren  men 
who  were  weakening,  and  to  whom  he  wanted  Stuart  to  send 
documents;  the  name  of  every  theretofore  doubtful  person 
who  had  declared  himself  for  Harrison.  "Japh  Bell  has  come 
out  for  Harrison,"  he  put  in  a  postscript  to  one  letter;  "ain't 
that  a  caution  ?" 

The  monster  political  meetings  held  throughout  the  State 
did  much  to  widen  Lincoln's  reputation,  particularly  one  held 
in  June  in  Springfield.  Twenty  thousand  people  attended  this 
meeting,  delegations  coming  from  every  direction.  It  took 
fourteen  teams  to  haul  the  delegation  from  Chicago,  and  they 
were  three  weeks  on  their  journey.  Each  party  carried  some 
huge  symbolic  piece — the  log  cabin  being  the  favorite.  One 
of  the  cabins  taken  to  Springfield  was  drawn  by  thirty  yokes 
of  oxen.  In  a  hickory  tree  which  was  planted  beside  this 
cabin,  coons  were  seen  playing,  and  a  barrel  of  hard  cider 
stood  by  the  door,  continually  on  tap.  Instead  of  a  log  cabin, 
the  Chicago  delegation  dragged  across  country  a  govern- 
ment yawl  rigged  up  as  a  two-masted  ship,  with  a  band  of 
music  and  a  six-pounder  cannon  on  board. 

There  are  many  reminiscences  of  this  great  celebration, 
and  Lincoln's  part  in  it,  still  afloat  in  Illinois.  General  T.  J. 
Henderson  writes,  in  his  entertaining  reminiscences  of  Lin- 
coln: 


1 66       .  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

"The  first  time  I  remember  to  have  seen  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  during  the  memorable  campaign  of  1840,  when  I  was  a 
boy  fifteen  years  of  age.  It  was  at  an  immense  Whig  mass- 
meeting  held  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  in  the  month  of  June  of 
that  year.  The  Whigs  attended  this  meeting  from  all  parts  of 
the  State  in  large  numbers,  and  it  was  estimated  that  from 
forty  to  fifty  thousand  people  were  present.  They  came  in 
carriages  and  wagons,  on  horseback  and  on  foot.  They  came 
with  log  cabins  drawn  on  wheels  by  oxen,  and  with  coons, 
coon-skins,  and  hard  cider.  They  came  with  music  and  ban- 
ners; and  thousands  of  them  came  from  long  distances.  It 
was  the  first  political  meeting  I  had  ever  attended,  and  it 
made  a  very  strong  impression  upon  my  youthful  mind. 

"My  father,  William  H.  Henderson,  then  a  resident  of 
Stark  county,  Illinois,  was  an  ardent  Whig;  and  having 
served  under  General  William  Henry  Harrison,  the  then 
Whig  candidate  for  President,  in  the  war  of  1812-1815,  he 
felt  a  deep  interest  in  his  election.  And  although  he  lived 
about  a  hundred  miles  from  Springfield,  he  went  with  a  dele- 
gation from  Stark  county  to  this  political  meeting,  and  took 
me  along  with  him.  I  remember  that  at  this  great  meeting  of 
the  supporters  of  Harrison  and  Tyler  there  were  a  number  of 
able  and  distinguished  speakers  of  the  Whig  party  of  the 
State  of  Illinois  present.  Among  them  were  Colonel  E.  D. 
Baker,  who  was  killed  at  Ball's  Bluff,  on  the  Potomac,  in  the 
late  war,  and  who  was  one  of  the  most  eloquent  speakers  in 
the  State ;  Colonel  John  J.  Hardin,  who  was  killed  at  the  bat- 
tle of  Buena  Vista,  in  the  Mexican  war ;  Fletcher  Webster,  a 
son  of  Daniel  Webster,  who  was  killed  in  the  late  war;  S. 
Leslie  Smith,  a  brilliant  orator  of  Chicago ;  Rev.  John  Ho- 
gan,  Ben  Bond,  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  heard  all  of  these 
men  speak  on  that  occasion.  And  while  I  was  too  young  to 
be  a  judge  of  their  speeches,  yet  I  thought  them  all  to  be 
great  men,  and  none  of  them  greater  than  Abraham  Lin- 
coln." 

The  late  Judge  Scott  of  Illinois  says  of  Lincoln's  speech 
at  that  gathering,  in  an  unpublished  paper  "Lincoln  on  the 
Stump  and  at  the  Bar" : 

"Mr.  Lincoln  stood  in  a  wagon£  from  jyhich  he  addressed 


A    HARRISON   BADGE   OF    1840 

From  the  collection  of  Mr.  O.  H.  Oldroyd  of  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 


BEGINS  TO  STUDY  LAW  167 

the  mass  of  people  that  surrounded  it.  The  meeting  was  one; 
of  unusual  interest  because  of  him  who  was  to  make  the  prin^ 
cipal  address.  It  was  at  the  time  of  his  greatest  physical 
strength.  He  was  tall,  and  perhaps  a  little  more  slender  than 
in  later  life,  and  more  homely  than  after  he  became  stouter  in 
person.  He  was  then  only  thirty-one  years  of  age,  and  yet 
he  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  Whig  speakers  in 
that  campaign.  There  was  that  in  him  that  attracted  and 
held  public  attention.  Even  then  he  was  the  subject  of  popu- 
lar regard  because  of  his  candid  and  simple  mode  of  discuss- 
ing and  illustrating  political  questions.  At  times  he  was  in- 
tensely logical,  and  was  always  most  convincing  in  his  argu- 
ments. The  questions  involved  in  that  canvass  had  relation 
to  the  tariff,  internal  public  improvements  by  the  federal  gov- 
ernment, the  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  pub- 
lic lands  among  the  several  States,  and  other  questions  that 
divided  the  political  parties  of  that  day.  They  were  not  such 
questions  as  enlisted  and  engaged  his  best  thoughts ;  they  did 
not  take  hold  of  his  great  nature,  and  had  no  tendency  to  de- 
velop it.  At  times  he  discussed  the  questions  of  the  time  in  a 
logical  way,  but  much  time  was  devoted  to  telling  stories  to 
illustrate  some  phase  of  his  argument,  though  more  often  the 
telling  of  these  stories  was  resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of 
rendering  his  opponents  ridiculous.  That  was  a  style  of 
speaking  much  appreciated  at  that  early  day.  In  that  kind  of 
oratory  he  excelled  most  of  his  contemporaries — indeed,  he 
had  no  equal  in  the  State.  One  story  he  told  on  that  occa- 
sion was  full  of  salient  points,  and  well  illustrated  the  argu- 
ment he  was  making.  It  was  not  an  impure  story,  yet  it  was 
not  one  it  would  be  seemly  to  publish;  but  rendered,  as  it 
was,  in  his  inimitable  way,  it  contained  nothing  that  was  of- 
fensive to  a  refined  taste.  The  same  story  might  have  been 
told  by  another  in  such  a  way  that  it  would  probably  have 
been  regarded  as  transcending  the  proprieties  of  popular  ad- 
dress. One  characterizing  feature  of  all  the  stories  told  by 
Mr.  Lincoln,  on  the  stump  and  elsewhere,  was  that  although 
the  subject  matter  of  some  of  them  might  not  have  been  en- 
tirely unobjectionable,  yet  the  manner  of  telling  them  was  so 
peculiarly  his  own  that  they  gave  no  offence  even  to  refined 
and  cultured  people.  On  the  contrary  |hey^  were  much  en^ 


1 68  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

joyed.  The  story  he  told  on  this  occasion  was  much  liked  by 
the  vast  assembly  that  surrounded  the  temporary  platform 
from  which  he  spoke,  and  was  received  with  loud  bursts  of 
laughter  and  applause.  It  served  to  place  the  opposing  party 
and  its  speakers  in  a  most  ludicrous  position  in  respect  to  the 
question  being  considered,  and  gave  him  a  most  favorable 
hearing  for  the  arguments  he  later  made  in  support  of  the 
measures  he  was  sustaining." 

Although  so  active  as  a  Whig  politician  Lincoln  was 
not  prominent  at  this  period  as  a  legislator.  Few  bills 
originated  with  him.  Among  these  few  one  of  interest  is  the 
Illinois  law  requiring  the  examination  of  school  teachers  as 
to  their  qualifications,  and  providing  for  the  granting  of  offi- 
cial certificates  of  authority  to  teach.  In  the  pioneer  days, 
any  person  whom  circumstances  forced  into  the  business  was 
permitted  to  teach.  On  December  2,  1840,  Lincoln  offered 
the  following  resolution  in  the  Illinois  House  of  Representa- 
tives : 

"Resolved,  That  the  committee  on  education  be  instructed 
to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  providing  by  law  for  the 
examination  as  to  the  qualification  of  persons  offering  them- 
selves as  school  teachers,  that  no  teacher  shall  receive  any 
part  of  the  public  school  fund  who  shall  not  have  success- 
fully passed  such  examination,  and  that  they  report  by  bill 
or  otherwise." 

A  motion  to  table  this  resolution  was  defeated.  Within 
the  ensuing  three  months  the  legislature  passed  "an  act  mak- 
ing provision  for  organizing  and  maintaining  common 
schools" — the  act  which  was  the  foundation  of  the  common 
school  system  of  Illinois.  Section  81  of  this  act,  providing 
for  the  qualification  of  teachers  embodied  Lincoln's  idea. 
This  section  made  it  the  duty  of  the  school  trustees  in  every 
township  "to  examine  any  person  proposing  to  teach  school 
in  their  vicinity  in  relation  to  the  qualifications  of  such  per- 
son as  a  teacher/'jDr  they  might  appoint  a  board  of  commis- 


BEGINS  TO  STUDY  LAW  169 

sioners  to  conduct  the  examination ;  and  a  certificate  of  quali- 
fication was  to  be  issued  by  a  majority  of  the  trustees  or  com- 
missioners. Since  then,  of  course,  all  the  States  have  passed 
laws  providing  for  the  examination  of  teachers.  In  Illinois, 
no  material  change  has  been  made  in  Lincoln's  plan  (for  this 
section  of  the  law  was  very  likely  drawn  by  Lincoln),  ex- 
cept that  the  power  of  examination  has  been  transferred 
from  the  trustees  or  commissioners  to  the  county  superin- 
tendent of  schools  an  office  then  unknown. 


S.  T.  LOGAN  &  E.  D.  BAKER, 

ATTORNEYS  AND  COUNSELLORS  AT  LAW* 

WILL  practice,  in  conjunction,  in  the  Cir- 
Courts  of  this  Judicial  District,  and*  n.  the  Circuit 
Courts  of  the  Counties  of  Pike,  Schuylcr  and  Peoria* 
Springfield,  march,  1837.  8|-t 

"J.T.  STUART  AND  A.  LINCOLN7 

ATTORNEYS  and  Counsellor*  at  Law  will  practice, 
conjointly,  in  the  Courts  of  this  Judicial  CircuiL— 
Office  No.  4  Hoffman's  Rew.'up  stairs. 
Springfield,  april  12,  1837.  ' 4 . 

THE  partnership  heretofore  existing  between  thu  unj 
dersigned,  has  been  dissolved  by  mutual  consent.— f 
The"busincss  will  be  found  in  the  hands  of  John  T.  Stuart. 

JOHN  T.  STUART, 
April  12, 1837.     84       HENRY  E.  DUMMER.  _. 


STUART  AND  LINCOLN'S  PROFESSIONAL  CARD. 


CHAPTER  XI 

LINCOLN'S  ENGAGEMENT  TO  MARY  TODD — BREAKING  OF  THE 
ENGAGEMENT LINCOLN-SHIELDS  DUEL 

BUSY  as  Lincoln  was  with  law  and  politics  the  first  three 
years  after  he  reached  Springfield,  he  did  not  by  any  means 
fail  to  identify  himself  with  the  interests  of  the  town  and  of 
its  people.  In  all  the  intellectual  life  of  the  place  he  took  his 
part.  In  the  fall  of  1837  with  a  few  of  the  leading  young 
men  he  formed  a  young  men's  lycetim.  One  of  the  very 
few  of  his  early  speeches  which  has  been  preserved  was  de- 
livered before  this  body,  its  subject  being  the  Perpetuation 
of  our  Political  Institutions.  At  the  request  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Lyceum  this  address  was  published  in  the  "San- 
gamon  Journal"  for  February  3,  1838. 

The  most  pleasing  feature  of  his  early  life  in  the  town  was 
the  way  in  which  he  attracted  all  classes  of  people  to  him.  He 
naturally,  from  his  political  importance  and  from  his  relation 
to  Mr.  Stuart,  was  admitted  to  the  best  society.  But  Lincoln 
was  not  received  there  from  tolerance  of  his  position  only. 
The  few  members  left  of  that  interesting  circle  of  Springfield 
in  the  thirties  are  emphatic  in  their  statements  that  he  was 
recognized  as  a  valuable  social  factor.  If  indifferent  to  forms 
and  little  accustomed  to  conventional  usages,  he  had  a  native 
dignity  and  self-respect  which  stamped  him  at  once  as  a  su- 
perior man.  He  had  a  good  will,  an  easy  adaptability  to  peo- 
ple, which  made  him  take  a  hand  in  everything  that  went  on. 
His  name  appears  in  every  list  of  banqueters  and  merry- 
makers reported  in  the  Springfield  papers.  He  even  served 
as  committeeman  for  cotillion  parties-  "  We  liked  Lincoln 

170 


HIS  MARRIAGE  ENGAGEMENT  tfl 

though  he  was  not  gay,"  said  one  charming  and  cultivated 
old  lady  to  me  in  Springfield.  "He  rarely  danced,  he  was 
never  very  attentive  to  ladies,  but  he  was  always  a  welcome 
guest  everywhere,  and  the  centre  of  a  circle  of  animated 


t  /  CC&G&, 
December  1 6th,  1833 


N.  N.   OIOCCLT, 

a.  r.  3PECD. 

J.  A.   N'CteKNAHO. 

J.    SHIELDS. 

R.    ALLEN. 

C.  D.  TAYLOR* 

*.   M.   WASH, 

C.   H.    KEHHVNAM, 

r.    W.    TOI.D. 

N.    C.    WHITES  IDE. 

0.   A.   DOUGLASS. 

M.  CASTHAM. 

W.  S.  T-RCNTICt. 

J.    H.    OIH.E.R. 

M/W.  COWARDS. 

A.  LINCOLN^ 

Mincers. 

1-ACSIMTLE  OF  INVITATION  TO  A  SPRINGFIELD  OOTH.UON  PARTY. 

From  the  collection  of  Mr.  O.  F.  Gunther,  Chicago. 

talkers.  Indeed,  I  think  the  only  thing  we  girls  had  against 
Lincoln  was  that  he  always  attracted  all  the  men  around 
him." 

Lincoln's  kindly  interest  and  perfectly  democratic  feeling 
attached  to  him  many  people  whom  he  never  met  save  on  the 


172  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

streets.  Indeed  his  life  in  the  streets  of  Springfield  is  a  most 
touching  and  delightful  study.  He  concerned  himself  in  the 
progress  of  every  building  which  was  put  up,  of  every  new 
street  which  was  opened;  he  passed  nobody  without  recog- 
nition ;  he  seemed  always  to  have  time  to  stop  and  talk.  He 
became,  in  fact,  part  of  Springfield  street  life,  just  as  he  did 
of  the  town's  politics  and  society. 

I  In  1840  Lincoln  became  engaged  to  be  married  to  one  of 
the  favorite  young  women  of  Springfield,  Miss  Mary  Todd, 
the  sister-in-law  of  one  of  his  political  friends,  a  member  of 
the  "Long  Nine"  and  a  prominent  citizen,  Ninian  W.  Ed- 
wards. 

Miss  Todd  came  from  a  well-known  family  of  Lexington, 
Kentucky;  her  father,  Robert  S.  Todd,  being  one  of  the 
leading  citizens  of  his  State.  She  had  come  to  Springfield 
in  1839  to  live  with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Edwards.  She  was  a 
brilliant,  witty,  highly-educated  girl,  ambitious  and  spirited, 
with  a  touch  of  audacity  which  only  made  her  more  attrac- 
tive, and  she  at  once  took  a  leading  position  in  Springfield 
society.  There  were  many  young  unmarried  men  in  the 
town,  drawn  there  by  politics,  and  Mr.  Edwards's  handsome 
home  was  opened  to  them  in  the  hospitable  Southern  way. 
After  Mary  Todd  became  an  inmate  of  the  Edwards  house, 
the  place  was  gayer  than  ever.  She  received  much  attention 
,from  Douglas,  Shields,  Lincoln,  and  several  others.  It  was 
i  soon  apparent,  however,  that  Miss  Todd  preferred  Lincoln. 
As  the  intimacy  between  them  increased,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ed- 
wards protested.  However  honorable  and  able  a  man  Lin- 
coln might  be,  he  was  still  a  "plebeian."  His  family  were 
humble  and  poor;  he  was  self-educated,  without  address  or 
polish,  careless  of  forms,  indifferent  to  society.  How  could 
Mary  Todd,  brought  up  in  a  cultured  home,  accustomed  to 
the  refinements  of  life,  ambitious  for  social  position,  accom- 
modate herselfj;o_so  grave  a  nature,  so  dull  an  exterior? 


HIS  MARRIAGE  ENGAGEMENT  1 73 

Miss  Todd  knew  her  own  mind,  however.  She  loved  Lin- 
coln, and  seems  to  have  believed  from  the  first  in  his  future. 
Some  time  in  1840  they  became  engaged. 

But  it  was  not  long  before  there  came  the  clashing  in- 
evitable between  two  persons  whose  tastes  and  ambitions 
were  so  different.  Miss  Todd  was  jealous  and  exacting; 
Lincoln  thoughtless  and  inattentive.  He  frequently  failed 
to  accompany  her  to  the  merry-makings  which  she  wanted 
to  attend  and  she,  naturally  enough,  resented  his  neglect 
interpreting  it  as  a  purposed  slight.  Sometimes  in  revenge 
she  went  with  Mr.  Douglas  or  some  other  escort  who  of- 
fered. Reproaches  and  tears  and  misunderstandings  fol- 
lowed. If  the  lovers  made  up,  it  was  only  to  fall  out  again. 
At  last  Lincoln  became  convinced  that  they  were  incompati- 
ble, and  resolved  that  he  must  break  the  engagement.  But 
the  knowledge  that  the  girl  loved  him  took  away  his  cour- 
age. He  felt  that  he  must  not  draw  back,  and  he  became  pro- 
foundly miserable. 

" Whatever  woman  may  cast  her  lot  with  mine,  should  any 
ever  dc  so,  it  is  my  intention  to  do  all  in  my  power  to  make 
her  happy  and  contented ;  and  there  is  nothing  I  can  imagine 
that  would  make  me  more  unhappy  than  to  fail  in  the  ef- 
fort," Lincoln  had  written  Miss  Owens  three  years  before. 
How  could  he  make  this  brilliant,  passionate  creature  to 
whom  he  was  betrothed  happy  ? 

A  mortal  dread  of  the  result  of  the  marriage,  a  harrow- 
ing doubt  of  his  own  feelings,  possessed  him.  The  experience 
is  not  so  rare  in  the  history  of  lovers  that  it  should  be  re- 
garded, as  it  often  has  been,  as  something  exceptional  and 
abnormal  in  Lincoln's  case.  A  reflective  nature  founded  in 
melancholy,  like  Lincoln's,  rarely  undertakes  even  the  sim- 
pler affairs  of  life  without  misgivings.  He  certainly  experi- 
enced dread  and  doubt  before  entering  on  any  new  relation. 
When  it  came  to  forming  the  most  delicate  and  intimate  of 


174  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

all  human  relations,  he  staggered  under  a  burden  of  uncer- 
tainty and  suffering  and  finally  broke  the  engagement. 

So  horrible  a  breach  of  honor  did  this  seem  to  him  that 
he  called  the  day  when  it  occurred  the  "fatal  first  of  January, 
1841,"  and  months  afterward  he  wrote  to  his  intimate  friend 
Speed:  "I  must  regain  my  confidence  in  my  own  ability  to 
keep  my  resolves  when  they  are  made.  In  that  ability  I  once 
prided  myself  as  the  only  or  chief  gem  of  my  character ;  that 
gem  I  lost — how  and  where  you  know  too  well.  I  have  not 
yet  regained  it,  and,  until  I  do,  I  cannot  trust  myself  in  any 
matter  of  much  importance." 

The  breaking  of  the  engagement  between  Miss  Todd  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  known  at  the  time  to  all  their  friends.  Lin- 
coln's melancholy  was  evident  to  them  all,  nor  did  he,  in- 
deed, attempt  to  disguise  it.  He  wrote  and  spoke  freely  to 
his  intimates  of  the  despair  which  possessed  him,  and  of  his 
sense  of  dishonor.  The  episode  caused  a  great  amount  of 
gossip,  as  was  to  be  expected.  After  Mr.  Lincoln's  assassi- 
nation and  Mrs.  Lincoln's  sad  death,  various  accounts  of 
the  courtship  and  marriage  were  circulated.  It  remained, 
however,  for  one  of  Lincoln's  law  partners,  Mr.  W.  H. 
Herndon,  to  develop  and  circulate  the  most  sensational  of 
all  the  versions  of  the  rupture.  According  to  Mr.  Herndon, 
the  engagement  between  the  two  was  broken  in  the  most 
violent  and  public  way  possible,  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  failing  to 
appear  at  the  wedding.  Mr.  Herndon  even  describes  the 
scene  in  detail : 

"The  time  fixed  for  the  marriage  was  the  first  day  of  Janu- 
ary, 1841.  Careful  preparations  for  the  happy  occasion  were 
made  at  the  Edwards  mansion.  The  house  underwent  the 
customary  renovation ;  the  furniture  was  properly  arranged, 
the  rooms  neatly  decorated,  the  supper  prepared,  and  the 
guests  invited.  The  latter  assembled  on  the  evening  in  ques- 
tion, and  awaited  in  expectant  pleasure  the  interesting  cere- 
mony of  marriage.  The  bride,  bedecked  in  veil  and  silken 


HIS  MARRIAGE  ENGAGEMENT  1 75 

gown,  and  nervously  toying  with  the  flowers  in  her  hair,  sat 
in  the  adjoining  room.  Nothing  was  lacking  but  the  groom. 
For  some  strange  reason  he  had  been  delayed.  An  hour 
passed,  and  the  guests,  as  well  as  the  bride,  were  becoming 
restless.  But  they  were  all  doomed  to  disappointment.  An- 
other hour  passed ;  messengers  were  sent  out  over  town,  and 
each  returning  with  the  same  report,  it  became  apparent  that 
Lincoln,  the  principal  in  this  little  drama,  had  purposely 
failed  to  appear.  The  bride,  in  grief,  disappeared  to  her 
room;  the  wedding  supper  was  left  untouched;  the  guests 
quietly  and  wonderingly  withdrew;  the  lights  in  the  Ed- 
wards mansion  were  blown  out,  and  darkness  settled  over  all 
for  the  night.  What  the  feelings  of  a  lady  as  sensitive,  pas- 
sionate, and  proud  as  Miss  Todd  were,  we  can  only  imagine ; 
no  one  can  ever  describe  them.  By  daybreak,  after  persistent 
search,  Lincoln's  friends  found  him.  Restless,  gloomy, 
miserable,  desperate,  he  seemed  an  object  of  pity.  His 
friends,  Speed  among  the  number,  fearing  a  tragic  termina- 
tion, watched  him  closely  in  their  rooms  day  and  night. 
'Knives  and  razors,  and  every  instrument  that  could  be  used 
for  self-destruction,  were  removed  from  his  reach/  Mrs. 
Edwards  did  not  hesitate  to  regard  him  as  insane,  and  of 
course  her  sister  Mary  shared  in  that  view." 

No  one  can  read  this  description  in  connection  with  the 
rest  of  Mr.  Herndon's  text,  and  escape  the  impression  that, 
if  it  is  true,  there  must  have  been  a  vein  of  cowardice  in 
Lincoln.  The  context  shows  that  he  was  not  insane  enough 
to  excuse  such  a  public  insult  to  a  woman.  To  break  his  en- 
gagement was,  all  things  considered,  not  an  unusual  or  ab- 
normal thing;  to  brood  over  the  rupture,  to  blame  himself, 
to  feel  that  he  had  been  dishonorable,  was  to  be  expected, 
after  such  an  act,  from  one  of  his  temperament.  Nothing, 
however,  but  temporary  insanity  or  constitutional  cowardice 
could  explain  such  conduct  as  here  described.  Mr.  Herndon 
does  not  pretend  to  found  his  story  on  any  personal  knowl- 
edge of  the  affair.  He  was  in  Springfield  at  the  time,  a  clerk 
in  Speed's  store,  but  did  not  have  then,  nor,  indeed,  did  he 


LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

ever  have,  any  social  relations  with  the  families  in  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  always  a  welcome  guest.  His  authority 
for  the  story  is  a  remark  which  he  says  Mrs.  Ninian  Ed- 
wards made  to  him  in  an  interview:  "Lincoln  and  Mary 
were  engaged;  everything  was  ready  and  prepared  for  the 
marriage,  even  to  the  supper.  Mr.  Lincoln  failed  to  meet  his 
engagement;  cause,  insanity."  This  remark,  it  should  be 
noted,  is  not  from  a  manuscript  written  by  Mrs.  Edwards, 
but  in  a  report  of  an  interview  with  her,  written  by  Mr. 
Herndon.  Supposing,  however,  that  the  statement  was  made 
exactly  as  Mr.  Herndon  reports  it,  it  certainly  does  not 
justify  any  such  sensational  description  as  Mr.  Herndon 
gives. 

If  such  a  thing  had  ever  occurred,  it  could  not  have  failed 
to  be  known,  of  course,  even  to  its  smallest  details,  by  all  the 
relatives  and  friends  of  both  Miss  Todd  and  Mr.  Lincoln. 
Nobody,  however,  ever  heard  of  this  wedding  party  until 
Mr.  Herndon  gave  his  material  to  the  public. 

One  of  the  closest  friends  of  the  Lincolns  throughout  their 
lives  was  a  cousin  of  Mrs.  Lincoln's,  Mrs.  Grimsley,  after- 
wards Mrs.  Dr.  Brown.  Mrs.  Grimsley  lived  in  Springfield, 
on  the  most  intimate  and  friendly  relations  with  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  the  first  six  months  of  their  life  in  the 
White  House  she  spent  with  them.  She  was  a  woman  of  un- 
usual culture,  and  of  the  rarest  sweetness  and  graciousness 
of  character.  Some  months  before  Mrs.  Brown's  death,  in 
August,  1895,  a  copy  of  Mr.  Herndon's  story  was  sent  her, 
with  a  request  that  'she  write  for  publication  her  knowledge 
of  the  affair.  In  her  reply  she  said  : 

"Did  Mr.  Lincoln  fail  to  appear  when  the  invitations  were 
out,  the  guests  invited,  and  the  supper  ready  for  the  wed- 
ding? I  will  say  emphatically,  'No/ 

"There  may  have  been  a  little  shadow  of  foundation  for 
Mr.  Herndoia's  lively  imagination  to  play  upon,  in  that,  the 
year  previous  to  the  marriage,  and  when  Mr.  Lincoln  and 


HIS  MARRIAGE  ENGAGEMENT  177 

my  cousin  Mary  expected  soon  to  be  married,  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  taken  with  one  of  those  fearful,  overwhelming  periods 
of  depression,  which  induced  his  friends  to  persuade  him  to 
leave  Springfield.  This  he  did  for  a  time ;  but  I  am  satisfied 
he  was  loyal  and  true  to  Mary,  even  though  at  times  he  may 
have  doubted  whether  he  was  responding  as  fully  as  a  manly, 
generous  nature  should  to  such  affection  as  he  knew  my 
cousin  was  ready  to  bestow  on  him.  And  this  because  it  had 
not  the  overmastering  depth  of  an  early  love.  This  every- 
body here  knows ;  therefore  I  do  not  feel  as  if  I  were  betray 
ing  dear  friends." 

Mrs.  John  Stuart,  the  wife  of  Lincoln's  law  partner  at 
that  time,  is  still  living  in  Springfield,  a  refined,  cultivated, 
intelligent  woman,  who  remembers  perfectly  the  life  and 
events  of  that  day.  When  Mr.  Herndon's  story  first  came 
to  her  attention,  her  indignation  was  intense.  She  protested 
that  she  never  before  had  heard  of  such  a  thing.  Mrs.  Stuart 
was  not,  however,  in  'Springfield  at  that  particular  date,  but 
in  Washington,  her  husband  being  a  member  of  Congress. 
She  wrote  the  following  statement  for  this  biography : 

"I  cannot  deny  this,  as  I  was  not  in  Springfield  for  some 
months  before  and  after  this  occurrence  was  said  to  have 
taken  place ;  but  I  was  in  close  correspondence  with  relatives 
and  friends  during  all  this  time,  and  never  heard  a  word  of 
it.  The  late  Judge  Broadwell  told  me  that  he  had  asked 
Mr.  Ninian  Edwards  about  it,  and  Mr.  Edwards  told  him 
that  no  such  thing  had  ever  taken  place. 

"All  I  can  say  is  that  I  unhesitatingly  do  not  believe  such 
an  event  ever  occurred.  I  thought  I  had  never  heard  of 
this  till  I  saw  it  in  Herndon's  book.  I  have  since  been  told 
that  Lamon  mentions  the  same  thing.  I  read  Lamon  at  the 
time  he  published,  and  felt  very  much  disgusted,  but  did  not 
remember  this  particular  assertion.  The  first  chapters  of 
Lamon' s  book  were  purchased  from  Herndon;  so  Herndon 
is  responsible  for  the  whole. 

"Mrs.  Lincoln  told  me  herself  all  the  circumstances  of  her 
engagement  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  of  his  illness,  and  the  breaking 
(12) 


l?8  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

off  of  her  engagement,  of  the  renewal,  and  her  marriage. 
So  I  say  I  do  not  believe  one  word  of  this  dishonorable  story 
about  Mr.  Lincoln." 

Another  prominent  member  in  the  same  circle  with  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  Miss  Todd  is  Mrs.  B.  T.  Edwards,  the  widow 
of  Judge  Benjamin  T.  Edwards,  the  sister-in-law  of  Mr. 
Ninian  Edwards,  who  had  married  Miss  Todd's  sister.  She 
came  to  Springfield  in  1839,  and  was  intimately  acquainted 
with  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Miss  Todd,  and  knew,  as  well  as  an- 
other could  know,  their  affairs.  Mrs.  Edwards  is  still  living 
in  Springfield,  a  woman  of  the  most  perfect  refinement  and 
trustworthiness.  In  answer  to  the  question,  "Is  Mr.  Hern- 
don's  description  true?"  she  writes: 

"I  am  impatient  to  tell  you  that  all  that  he  says  about  this 
wedding — the  time  for  which  was  'fixed  for  the  first  day  of 
January' — is  a  fabrication.  He  has  drawn  largely  upon  his 
imagination  in  describing  something  which  never  took  place. 

"I  know  the  engagement  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Miss 
Todd  was  interrupted  for  a  time,  and  it  was  rumored  among 
her  young  friends  that  Mr.  Edwards  had  rather  opposed  it. 
But  I  am  sure  there  had  been  no  'time  fixed'  for  any  wed- 
ding; that  is,  no  preparations  had  ever  been  made  until  the 
day  that  Mr.  Lincoln  met  Mr.  Edwards  on  the  street  and  told 
him  that  he  and  Mary  were  going  to  be  married  that  even- 
ing. Upon  inquiry,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  they  would  be  married 
in  the  Episcopal  church,  to  which  Mr.  Edwards  replied :  'No; 
Mary  is  my  ward,  and  she  must  be  married  at  my  house/ 

"If  I  remember  rightly,  the  wedding  guests  were  few,  not 
more  than  thirty;  and  it  seems  to  me  all  are  gone  now  but 
Mrs.  Wallace,  Mrs.  Levering,  and  myself,  for  it  was  not 
much  more  than  a  family  gathering;  only  two  or  three  of 
Mary  Todd's  young  friends  were  present.  The  'entertain- 
ment' was  simple,  but  in  beautiful  taste;  but  the  bride  had 
neither  veil  nor  flowers  in  her  hair,  with  which  to  'toy 
nervously.'  There  had  been  no  elaborate  trousseau  for  the 
bride  of  the  future  President  of  the  United  States,  nor  even 
a  handsome  wedding  gown;  nor  was  it  a  gay  wedding." 


HIS  MARRIAGE  ENGAGEMENT  1 79 

Two  sisters  of  Mrs.  Lincoln  who  are  still  living,  Mrs. 
Wallace  of  Springfield,  and  Mrs.  Helm  of  Elizabethstown, 
Kentucky,  deny  emphatically  that  any  wedding  was  ever  ar- 
ranged between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Miss  Todd  but  the  one 
which  did  take  place.  That  the  engagement  was  broken 
after  a  wedding  had  been  talked  of,  they  think  possible;  but 
Mr.  Herndon's  story,  they  deny  emphatically. 

"There  is  not  a  word  of  truth  in  it !"  Mrs.  Wallace  broke 
out,  impulsively,  before  the  question  about  the  non-appear- 
ance of  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  finished.  "I  never  was  so 
amazed  in  my  life  as  when  I  read  that  story.  Mr.  Lincoln 
never  did  such  a  thing.  Why,  Mary  Lincoln  never  had  a 
silk  dress  in  her  life  until  she  went  to  Washington." 

As  Mr.  Joshua  Speed  was,  all  through  this  period,  Mr. 
Lincoln's  closest  friend,  no  thought  or  feeling  of  the  one  ever 
being  concealed  from  the  other,  Mrs.  Joshua  Speed,  who  is 
still  living  in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  was  asked  if  she  knew 
of  the  story.  Mrs.  Speed  listened  in  surprise  to  Mr.  Hern- 
don's tale.  "I  never  heard  of  it  before,"  she  declared.  "I 
never  heard  of  it.  If  it  is  true,  I  never  heard  of  it." 

While  the  above  investigation  was  going  on  quite  unex- 
pectedly, a  volunteer  witness  to  the  falsity  of  the  story  ap- 
peared. The  Hon.  H.  W.  Thornton  of  Millersburg,  Illinois, 
was  a  member  of  the  Twelfth  General  Assembly,  which  met 
in  Springfield  in  1840.  During  that  winter  he  was  boarding 
near  Lincoln,  saw  him  almost  every  day,  was  a  constant  visi- 
tor at  Mr.  Edwards's  house,  and  he  knew  Miss  Todd  well. 
He  wrote  to  the  author  declaring  th&f;  Mr.  Herndon's  state- 
ment about  the  wedding  must  be  false,  as  he  was  closely  asso- 
ciated with  Miss  Todd  and  Mr.  Lincoln  all  winter,  and  never 
knew  anything  of  it.  Mr.  Thornton  went  on  to  say  that  he 
knew  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  sensational  account  of  Lin- 
coln's insanity  was  untrue,  and  he  quoted  from  the  House 
journal  to  show  how  it  was  impossible  that,  as  Lamon  says, 


l8o  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

using  Herndon's  notes,  "Lincoln  went  crazy  as  a  loon,  an3 
did  not  attend  the  legislature  in  1841-1842,  for  this  rea- 
son;" or,  as  Herndon  says,  that  he  had  to  be  watched  con- 
stantly. According  to  the  record  taken  from  the  journals  of 
the  House  by  Mr.  Thornton,  and  which  have  been  verified  in 
Springfield,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  his  seat  in  the  House  on 
that  "  fatal  first  of  January"  when  he  is  asserted  to  have  been 
groping  in  the  shadow  of  madness,  and  he  was  also  there  on 
the  following  day.  The  third  of  January  was  Sunday.  On 
Monday,  the  fourth,  he  appears  not  to  have  been  present — • 
at  least  he  did  not  vote;  but  even  this  is  by  no  means  con- 
clusive evidence  that  he  was  not  there.  On  the  fifth,  and  on 
every  succeeding  day  until  the  thirteenth,  he  was  in  his  seat. 
From  the  thirteenth  to  the  eighteenth,  inclusive,  he  is  not 
recorded  on  any  of  the  roll-calls,  and  probably  was  not  pres- 
ent. But  on  the  nineteenth,  when  "John  J.  Hardin  announced 
his  illness  to  the  House,"  as  Mr.  Herndon  says  (which  an- 
nouncement seems  not  to  have  gotten  into  the  journal),  Lin- 
coln was  again  in  his  place,  and  voted.  On  the  twentieth  he 
is  not  recorded ;  but  on  every  subsequent  day,  until  the  close 
of  the  session  on  the  first  of  March,  Lincoln  was  in  the 
House.  Thus,  during  the  whole  of  the  two  months  of  Janu- 
ary and  February,  he  was  absent  not  more  than  seven  days 
— as  good  a  record  of  attendance,  perhaps,  as  that  made  by 
the  average  member. 

Mr.  Thornton  says  further:  "Mr.  Lincoln  boarded  at 
William  Butler's,  near  to  Dr.  Henry's,  where  I  boarded.  The 
missing  days,  from  January  I3th  to  iQth,  Mr.  Lincoln  spent 
several  hours  each  day  at  Dr.  Henry's ;  a  part  of  these  days 
I  remained  with  Mr.  Lincoln.  His  most  intimate  friends 
had  no  fears  of  his  injuring  himself.  He  was  very  sad  and 
melancholy,  but  being  subject  to  these  spells,  nothing  serious 
was  apprehended.  His  being  watched,  as  stated  in  Hern* 
don's  book,  was  news  to  me  until  I  saw  it  there." 


HIS  MARRIAGE  ENGAGEMENT  l8l 

But  while  Lincoln  went  about  his  daily  duties,  even  on  the 
"fatal  first  of  January," — the  day  when  he  broke  his  word  to 
Miss  Todd,  his  whole  being  was  shrouded  in  gloom.  He 
did  not  pretend  to  conceal  this  from  his  friends.  Writing  to 
Mr.  Stuart  on  January  23d,  he  said : 

"I  am  now  the  most  miserable  man  living.  If  what  I  feel 
were  equally  distributed  to  the  whole  human  family,  there 
would  not  be  one  cheerful  face  on  the  earth.  Whether  I 
shall  ever  be  better,  I  cannot  tell;  I  awfully  forebode  I  shall 
not.  To  remain  as  I  am  is  impossible.  I  must  die  or  be 
better,  it  appears  to  me.  The  matter  you  speak  of  on  my 
account  you  may  attend  to  as  you  say,  unless  you  shall  hear 
of  my  condition  forbidding  it.  I  say  this  because  I  fear  I 
shall  be  unable  to  attend  to  any  business  here,  and  a  change 
of  scene  might  help  me." 

In  the  summer  he  visited  his  friend  Speed,  who  had  sold 
his  store  in  Springfield,  and  returned  to  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky. The  visit  did  much  to  brighten  his  spirits,  for,  writ- 
ing back  in  September,  after  his  return,  to  his  friend's  sister, 
he  was  even  gay. 

A  curious  situation  arose  the  next  year  (1842),  which  did 
much  to  restore  Lincoln  to  a  more  normal  view  of  his  relation 
to  Miss  Todd.  In  the  summer  of  1841,  his  friend  Speed 
had  become  engaged.  As  the  time  for  his  marriage  ap- 
proached, he  in  turn  was  attacked  by  a  melancholy  not  un- 
like that  from  which  Lincoln  had  suffered.  He  feared  he  did 
not  love  well  enough  to  marry,  and  he  confided  his  fear  to 
Lincoln.  Full  of  sympathy  for  the  trouble  of  his  friend,  Lin- 
coln tried  in  every  way  to  persuade  him  that  his  "twinges 
of  the  soul"  were  all  explained  by  nervous  debility.  When 
Speed  returned  to  Kentucky,  Lincoln  wrote  him  several  let- 
ters, in  which  he  consoled,  counselled,  or  laughed  at  him. 
These  letters  abound  in  suggestive  passages.  From  what  did 
Speed  suffer  ?  From  three  special  causes  and  a  general  one, 
which  Lincoln  proceeds  to  enumerate : 


182  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

"The  general  cause  is,  that  you  are  naturally  of  a  nervous 
temperament;  and  this  I  say  from  what  I  have  seen  of  you 
personally,  and  what  you  have  told  me  concerning  your 
mother  at  various  times,  and  concerning  your  brother  Will- 
iam at  the  time  his  wife  died.  The  first  special  cause  is  your 
exposure  to  bad  weather  on  your  journey,  which  my  ex- 
perience clearly  proves  to  be  very  severe  on  defective  nerves. 
The  second  is  the  absence  of  all  business  and  conversation  of 
friends,  which  might  divert  your  mind,  give  it  occasional  rest 
from  the  intensity  of  thought  which  will  sometimes  wear  the 
sweetest  idea  threadbare  and  turn  it  to  the  bitterness  of 
death.  The  third  is  the  rapid  and  near  approach  of  that 
crisis  on  which  all  your  thoughts  and  feelings  concentrate." 

Speed  writes  that  his  fiancee  is  ill,  and  his  letter  is  full  of 
gloomy  forebodings  of  an  early  death.  Lincoln  hails  these 
fears  as  an  omen  of  happiness. 

"I  hope  and  believe  that  your  present  anxiety  and  distress 
ibout  her  health  and  her  life  must  and  will  forever  banish 
those  horrid  doubts  which  I  know  you  sometimes  felt  as  to 
the  truth  of  your  affection  for  her.  If  they  can  once  and  for- 
ever be  removed  (and  I  almost  feel  a  presentiment  that  the 
Almighty  has  sent  your  present  affliction  expressly  for  that 
object),  surely  nothing  can  come  in  their  stead  to  fill  their 
immeasurable  measure  of  misery.  It  really  appears  to  me 
that  you  yourself  ought  to  rejoice,  and  not  sorrow,  at  this  in- 
dubitable evidence  of  your  undying  affection  for  her.  Why, 
Speed,  if  you  did  not  love  her,  although  you  might  not  wish 
her  death,  you  would  most  certainly  be  resigned  to  it.  Per- 
haps this  point  is  no  longer  a  question  with  you,  and  my 
pertinacious  dwelling  upon  it  is  a  rude  intrusion  upon  your 
feelings.  If  so,  you  must  pardon  me.  You  know  the  hell  I 
have  suffered  on  that  point,  and  how  tender  I  am  upon  it. 
...  I  am  now  fully  convinced  that  you  love  her  as  ardently 
as  you  are  capable  of  loving.  Your  ever  being  happy  in  her 
presence,  and  your  intense  anxiety  about  her  health,  if  there 
were  nothing  else,  would  place  this  beyond  all  dispute  in  my 
mind.  I  incline  to  think  it  probable  that  your  nerves  will  fail 
you  occasionally  for  a  while;  but  once  you  get  them  firmly 


HIS  MARRIAGE  ENGAGEMENT  183 

guarded  now,  that  trouble  is  over  forever.  I  think,  if  I  were 
you,  in  case  my  mind  were  not  exactly  right,  I  would  avoid 
being  idle.  I  would  immediately  engage  in  some  business  or 
go  to  making  preparations  for  it,  which  would  be  the  same 
thing." 

Mr.  Speed's  marriage  occurred  in  February,  and  to  the 
letter  announcing  it  Lincoln  replied : 

"I  opened  the  letter  with  intense  anxiety  and  trepidation ; 
so  much  so,  that,  although  it  turned  out  better  than  I  ex- 
pected, I  have  hardly  yet,  at  a  distance  of  ten  hours,  become 
calm. 

"I  tell  you,  Speed,  our  forebodings  (for  which  you  and  I 
are  peculiar)  are  all  the  worst  sort  of  nonsense.  I  fancied, 
from  the  time  I  received  your  letter  of  Saturday,  that  the 
one  of  Wednesday  was  never  to  come,  and  yet  it  did  come, 
and  what  is  more,  it  is  perfectly  clear,  both  from  its  tone 
and  handwriting,  that  you  were  much  happier,  or,  if  you 
think  the  term  preferable,  less  miserable,  when  you  wrote  it 
than  when  you  wrote  the  last  one  before.  You  had  so  ob- 
viously improved  at  the  very  time  I  so  much  fancied  you 
would  have  grown  worse.  You  say  that  something  indes- 
cribably horrible  and  alarming  still  haunts  you.  You  will 
not  say  that  three  months  from  now,  I  will  venture.  When 
your  nerves  once  get  steady  now,  the  whole  trouble  will  be 
over  forever.  Nor  should  you  become  impatient  at  their 
being  even  very  slow  in  becoming  steady.  Again  you  say, 
you  much  fear  that  that  Elysium  of  which  you  have  dreamed 
so  much  is  never  to  be  realized.  Well,  if  it  shall  not,  I  dare 
swear  it  will  not  be  the  fault  of  her  who  is  now  your  wife. 
I  now  have  no  doubt  that  it  is  the  peculiar  misfortune  of 
both  you  and  me  to  dream  dreams  of  Elysium  far  exceeding 
all  that  anything  earthly  can  realize." 

His  prophecy  was  true.  In  March  Speed  wrote  him  that 
he  was  "far  happier  than  he  had  ever  expected  to  be."  Lin- 
coln caught  at  the  letter  with  pathetic  eagerness. 

"It  cannot  be  told  how  it  now  thrills  me  with  joy  to  hear 
you  say  you  are  'far  happier  than  you  ever  expected  to  be/ 


1 84  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

That  mtidh  I  know  is  enough.  I  know  you  too  well  to  sup- 
pose your  expectations  were  not,  at  least,  sometimes  ex- 
travagant, and  if  the  reality  exceeds  them  all,  I  say,  Enough, 
dear  Lord.  I  am  not  going  beyond  the  truth  when  I  tell 
you  that  the  short  space  it  took  me  to  read  your  last 
letter  gave  me  more  pleasure  than  the  total  sum  of  all  I 
have  enjoyed  since  the  fatal  ist  of  January,  1841.  Since 
then  it  seems  to  me  I  should  have  been  entirely  happy,  but 
for  the  never-absent  idea  that  there  is  one  still  unhappy 
whom  I  have  contributed  to  make  so.  That  still  kills  my  soul. 
I  cannot  but  reproach  myself  for  even  wishing  to  be  happy 
while  she  is  otherwise.  She  accompanied  a  large  party  on 
the  railroad  cars  to  Jacksonville  last  Monday,  and  on  her  re- 
turn spoke,  so  that  I  heard  of  it,  of  having  enjoyed  the  trip 
exceedingly.  God  be  praised  for  that." 

Evidently  Lincoln  was  still  unreconciled  to  his  separation 
from  Miss  Todd.  In  the  summer  of  1842,  only  three  or  four 
months  after  the  above  letter  was  written,  a  clever  ruse  on 
the  part  of  certain  of  their  friends  threw  the  two  unexpect- 
edly together ;  and  an  understanding  of  some  kind  evidently 
was  reached,  for  during  the  season  they  met  secretly  at  the 
house  of  one  of  Lincoln's  friends,  Mr.  Simeon  Francis.  It 
was  while  these  meetings  were  going  on  that  a  burlesque  en- 
counter occurred  between  Lincoln  and  James  Shields,  for 
which  Miss  Todd  was  partly  responsible,  and  which  no  doubt 
gave  just  the  touch  of  comedy  necessary  to  relieve  their 
tragedy  and  restore  them  to  a  healthier  view  of  their  rela- 
tions. 

Among  the  Democratic  officials  then  living  in  Springfield 
was  the  auditor  of  the  State,  James  Shields.  He  was  a  hot- 
headed, blustering  Irishman,  not  without  ability,  and  cer- 
tainly courageous;  a  good  politician,  and,  on  the  whole,  a 
very  well-liked  man.  However,  the  swagger  and  noise  with 
which  he  accompanied  the  execution  of  his  duties,  and  his 
habit  of  being  continually  on  the  defensive,  made  him  the 
butt  of  Whig  ridicule.  Nothing  could  have  given  greater 


HIS  MARRIAGE  ENGAGEMENT  165 

satisfaction  to  Lincoln  and  his  friends  than  having  an  op- 
ponent who,  whenever  they  joked  him,  flew  into  a  rage  and 
challenged  them  to  fight. 

At  the  time  Lincoln  was  visiting  Miss  Todd  at  Mr.  Fran- 
cis's house,  the  Whigs  were  much  excited  over  the  fact  that 
the  Democrats  had  issued  an  order  forbidding  the  payment 
of  State  taxes  in  State  bank-notes.  The  bank-notes  were  in 
fact  practically  worthless,  for  the  State  finances  were  suffer- 
ing a  violent  reaction  from  the  extravagant  legislation  of 
1836  and  1837.  One  of  the  popular  ways  of  attacking  an 
obnoxious  political  doctrine  in  that  day  was  writing  letters 
from  some  imaginary  backwoods  settlement,  setting  forth  in 
homely  vernacular  the  writer's  views  of  the  question,  and 
showing  how  its  application  affected  his  part  of  the  world. 
These  letters  were  really  a  rude  form  of  the  "  Biglow  Pa- 
pers "  or  "  Nasby  Letters."  Soon  after  the  order  was  issued 
by  the  Illinois  officials  demanding  silver  instead  of  bank- 
notes in  payment  of  taxes,  Lincoln  wrote  a  letter  to  a  Spring- 
field paper  from  the  "Lost  Townships,"  signing  it  "Aunt 
Rebecca."  In  it  he  described  the  plight  to  which  the  new  or- 
der had  brought  the  neighborhood,  and  he  intimated  that  the 
only  reason  for  issuing  such  an  order  was  that  the  State  of- 
ficers might  have  their  salaries  paid  in  silver.  Shields  was 
ridiculed  unmercifully  in  the  letter  for  his  vanity  and  his 
gallantry. 

It  happened  that  there  were  several  young  women  in 
Springfield  who  had  received  rather  too  pronounced  atten- 
tion from  Mr.  Shields,  and  who  were  glad  to  see  him  tor- 
mented. Among  them  were  Miss  Todd  and  her  friend  Miss 
Julia  Jayne.  Lincoln's  letter  from  the  "Lost  Townships" 
was  such  a  success  that  they  followed  it  up  with  one  in  which 
"Aunt  Rebecca"  proposed  to  the  gallant  auditor,  and  a  few 
days  later  they  published  some  very  bad  verses,  signed 
"Cathleen,"  celebrating  the  wedding. 


186  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

Springfield  was  highly  entertained,  less  by  the  verses  than 
by  the  fury  of  Shields.  He  would  have  satisfaction,  he  said, 
and  he  sent  a  friend,  one  General  Whitesides,  to  the  paper, 
to  ask  for  the  name  of  the  writer  of  the  communications. 
The  editor,  in  a  quandary,  went  to  Lincoln,  who,  unwilling 
that  Miss  Todd  and  Miss  Jayne  should  figure  in  the  affair, 
ordered  that  his  own  name  be  given  as  the  author  of  letters 
and  poem.  This  was  only  about  ten  days  after  the  first  let- 
ter had  appeared,  on  September  2d,  and  Lincoln  left  Spring- 
field in  a  day  or  two  for  a  long  trip  on  the  circuit.  He  was 
at  Tremont  when,  on  the  morning  of  the  seventeenth,  two 
of  his  friends,  E.  H.  Merryman  and  William  Butler,  drove 
up  hastily.  Shields  and  his  friend  Whitesides  were  behind, 
they  said,  the  irate  Irishman  vowing  that  he  would  challenge 
Lincoln.  They,  knowing  that  Lincoln  was  "unpractised  both 
as  to  diplomacy  and  weapons,"  had  started  as  soon  as  they 
had  learned  that  Shields  had  left  Springfield,  had  passed  him 
in  the  night,  and  were  there  to  see  Lincoln  through. 

It  was  not  long  before  Shields  and  Whitesides  arrived,  and 
soon  Lincoln  received  a  note  in  which  the  indignant  writer 
said :  "I  will  take  the  liberty  of  requiring  a  full,  positive,  and 
absolute  retraction  of  all  offensive  allusions  used  by  you  in 
these  communications  in  relation  to  my  private  character 
and  standing  as  a  man,  as  an  apology  for  the  insults  con- 
veyed in  them.  This  may  prevent  consequences  which  no 
one  will  regret  more  than  myself." 

Lincoln  immediately  replied  that,  since  Shields  had  not 
stopped  to  inquire  whether  he  really  was  the  author  of  the 
articles,  had  not  pointed  out  what  was  offensive  in  them,  had 
assumed  facts  and  hinted  at  consequences,  he  could  not  sub- 
mit to  answer  the  note.  Shields  wrote  again,  but  Lincoln 
simply  replied  that  he  could  receive  nothing  but  a  withdrawal 
of  the  first  note  or  a  challenge.  To  this  he  steadily  held,  even 
refusing  to  answer  the  question  as  to  the  authorship  of  the 


GENERAL  JAMES   SHIELDS. 


HIS  MARRIAGE  ENGAGEMENT  187 

letters,  which  Shields  finally  put.  It  was  inconsistent  with 
his  honor  to  negotiate  for  peace  with  Mr.  Shields,  he  said, 
unless  Mr.  Shields  withdrew  his  former  offensive  letter. 
Seconds  were  immediately  named:  Whitesides  by  Shields, 
Merryman  by  Lincoln;  and  though  they  talked  of  peace, 
Whitesides  declared  he  could  not  mention  it  to  his  principal. 
"He  would  challenge  me  next,  and  as  soon  cut  my  throat  as 
not." 

This  was  on  the  nineteenth,  and  that  night  the  party  re- 
turned to  Springfield.  But  in  some  way  the  affair  had  leaked 
out,  and  fearing  arrest,  Lincoln  and  Merryman  left  town  the 
next  morning.  The  instructions  were  left  with  Butler.  If 
Shields  would  withdraw  his  first  note,  and  write  another 
asking  if  Lincoln  was  the  author  of  the  offensive  articles, 
and,  if  so,  asking  for  gentlemanly  satisfaction,  then  Lincoln 
had  prepared  a  letter  explaining  the  whole  affair.  If  Shields 
would  not  do  this,  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  fight.  Lin- 
coln left  the  following  preliminaries  for  the  duel : 

"First.  Weapons:  Cavalry  broadswords  of  the  largest 
size,  precisely  equal  in  all  respects,  and  such  as  now  used  by 
the  cavalry  company  at  Jacksonville. 

"Second.  Position :  A  plank  ten  feet  long,  and  from  nine 
to  twelve  inches  broad,  to  be  firmly  fixed  on  edge,  on  the 
ground,  as  the  line  between  us,  which  neither  is  to  pass  his 
foot  over  on  forfeit  of  his  life.  Next  a  line  drawn  on  the 
ground  on  either  side  of  said  plank  and  parallel  with  it,  each 
at  the  distance  of  the  whole  length  of  the  sword  and  three 
feet  additional  from  the  plank ;  and  the  passing  of  his  own 
such  line  by  either  party  during  the  fight  shall  be  deemed  a 
surrender  of  the  contest. 

"Third.  Time:  On  Thursday  evening  at  five  o'clock,  if 
you  can  get  it  so ;  but  in  no  case  to  be  at  a  greater  distance  of 
time  than  Friday  evening  at  five  o'clock. 

"Fourth.  Place :  Within  three  miles  of  Alton,  on  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  river,  the  particular  spot  to  be  agreed  on 
by  you," 


1 88  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

As  Mr.  Shields  refused  to  withdraw  his  first  note,  the  en- 
tire party  started  for  the  rendezvous  across  the  Mississippi. 
Lincoln  and  Merryman  drove  together  in  a  dilapidated  old 
buggy,  in  the  bottom  of  which  rattled  a  number  of  broad- 
swords. It  was  the  morning  of  the  22d  of  September  when 
the  duellists  arrived  in  the  town.  There  are  people  still  liv- 
ing in  Alton  who  remember  their  coming.  "The  party  ar- 
rived about  the  middle  of  the  morning,"  says  Mr.  Edward 
Levis,  "and  soon  crossed  the  river  to  a  sand-bar  which  at  the 
time  was,  by  reason  of  the  low  water,  a  part  of  the  Missouri 
mainland.  The  means  of  conveyance  was  an  old  horse-ferry 
that  was  operated  by  a  man  named  Chapman.  The  weapons 
were  in  the  keeping  of  the  friends  of  the  principals,  and  no 
care  was  taken  to  conceal  them ;  in  fact,  they  were  openly  dis- 
played. Naturally,  there  was  a  great  desire  among  the  male 
population  to  attend  the  duel,  but  the  managers  of  the  affair 
would  not  permit  any  but  their  own  party  to  board  the  ferry- 
boat. Skiffs  were  very  scarce,  and  but  a  few  could  avail 
themselves  of  the  opportunity  in  this  way.  I  had  to  content 
myself  with  standing  on  the  levee  and  watching  proceedings 
at  long  range." 

As  soon  as  the  parties  reached  the  island  the  seconds  be- 
gan preparations  for  the  duel,  the  principals  meanwhile  seat- 
ing themselves  on  logs  on  opposite  sides  of  the  field — a  half- 
cleared  spot  in  the  timber.  One  of  the  spectators  says : 

"I  watched  Lincoln  closely  while  he  sat  on  his  log  awaiting 
the  signal  to  fight.  His  face  was  grave  and  serious.  I  could 
discern  nothing  suggestive  of  'Old  Abe/  as  we  knew  him.  I 
never  knew  him  to  go  so  long  before  without  making  a  joke, 
and  I  began  to  believe  he  was  getting  frightened.  But  pres- 
ently he  reached  over  and  picked  up  one  of  the  swords,  which 
he  drew  from  its  scabbard.  Then  he  felt  along  the  edge  of 
the  weapon  with  his  thumb,  like  a  barber  feels  of  the  edge  of 
his  razor,  raised  himself  to  his  full  height,  stretched  out  his 
long  arms  and  clipped  off  a  twig  from  above  his  head  with 


HIS  MARRIAGE  ENGAGEMENT^  ri8g» 

the  sword.  There  wasn't  another  man  pf  us  who  could  have 
reached  anywhere  near  that  twig,  and  the  absurdity  of  that 
long-reaching  fellow  righting  with  cavalry  sabers  with 
Shields,  who  could  walk  under  his  arm,  came  pretty  near 
making  me  howl  with  laughter.  After  Lincoln  had  cut  off 
the  twig  he  returned  the  sword  to  the  scabbard  with  a  sigh 
and  sat  down,  but  I  detected  the  gleam  in  his  eye,  which  was 
always  the  forerunner  of  one  of  his  inimitable  yarns,  and 
fully  expected  him  to  tell  a  side-splitter  there  in  the  shadow 
of  the  grave — Shields's  grave." 

The  arrangements  for  the  affair  were  about  completed 
when  the  duellists  were  joined  by  some  unexpected  friends. 
Lincoln  and  Merryman,  on  their  way  to  Alton,  had  stopped 
at  White  Hall  for  dinner.  Across  the  street  from  the  hotel 
lived  Mr.  Elijah  Lott,  an  acquaintance  of  Merryman.  Mr. 
Lott  was  not  long  in  finding  out  what  was  on  foot,  and  as 
soon  as  the  duellists  had  departed,  he  drove  to  Carrollton, 
where  he  knew  that  Colonel  John  J.  Hardin  and  several 
other  friends  of  Lincoln  were  attending  court,  and  warned 
them  of  the  trouble.  Hardin  and  one  or  two  others  imme- 
diately started  for  Alton.  They  arrived  in  time  to  calm 
Shields,  and  to  aid  the  seconds  in  adjusting  matters  "with 
honor  to  all  concerned." 

That  the  duellists  returned  in  good  spirits  is  evident  from 
Mr.  Levis's  reminiscences :  "It  was  not  very  long,"  says  he, 
"until  the  boat  was  seen  returning  to  Alton.  As  it  drew  near 
I  saw  what  was  presumably  a  mortally  wounded  man  lying 
in  the  bow  of  the  boat.  His  shirt  appeared  to  be  bathed  in 
blood.  I  distinguished  Jacob  Smith,  a  constable,  fanning  the 
supposed  victim  vigorously.  The  people  on  the  bank  held 
their  breath  in  suspense,  and  guesses  were  freely  made  as  to 
which  of  the  two  men  had  been  so  terribly  wounded.  But 
suspense  was  soon  turned  to  chagrin  and  relief  when  it  tran- 
spired that  the  supposed  candidate  for  another  world  was 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  log  covered  with  a  red  shirt 


190  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

This  ruse  had  been  resorted  to  in  order  to  fool  the  people  on 
the  levee;  and  it  worked  to  perfection.  Lincoln  and  Shields 
came  off  the  boat  together,  chatting  in  a  nonchalant  and 
pleasant  manner." 

The  Lincoln-Shields  duel  had  so  many  farcical  features, 
and  Miss  Todd  had  unwittingly  been  so  much  to  blame  for 
it,  that  one  can  easily  see  that  it  might  have  had  considerable 
influence  on  the  relations  of  the  two  young  people.  However 
that  may  be,  something  had  made  Mr.  Lincoln  feel  that  he 
could  renew  his  engagement.  Early  in  October,  not  a  fort- 
night after  the  duel,  he  wrote  Speed :  "You  have  now  been 
the  husband  of  a  lovely  woman  nearly  eight  months.  That 
you  are  happier  now  than  the  day  you  married  her  I  well 
know,  for  without  you  would  not  be  living.  But  I  have  your 
word  for  it,  too,  and  the  returning  elasticity  of  spirits  which 
is  manifested  in  your  letters.  But  I  want  to  ask  a  close  ques- 
tion :  Are  you  now  in  feelings  as  well  as  judgment  glad  that 
you  are  married  as  you  are  ? 

"From  anybody  but  me  this  would  be  an  impudent  ques- 
tion, not  to  be  tolerated ;  but  I  know  that  you  will  pardon  it 
in  me.  Please  answer  it  quickly,  as  I  am  impatient  to  know." 

We  do  not  know  Speed's  answer,  nor  the  final  struggle 
of  the  man's  heart.  We  only  know  that  on  November  4, 
1842,  Lincoln  was  married,  the  wedding  being  almost  im- 
promptu. Mrs.  Dr.  Brown,  Miss  Todd's  cousin,  in  the  same 
letter  quoted  from  above,  describes  the  wedding : 

"One  morning,  bright  and  early,  my  cousin  came  down  in 
her  excited,  impetuous  way,  and  said  to  my  father :  'Uncle, 
you  must  go  up  and  tell  my  sister  that  Mr.  Lincoln  and  I 
are  to  be  married  this  evening/  and  to  me :  'Get  on  your  bon- 
net and  go  with  me  to  get  my  gloves,  shoes,  etc.,  and  then  to 
Mr.  Edwards's.'  When  we  reached  there  we  found  some  ex- 
citement over  a  wedding  being  sprung  upon  them  so  sud- 
denly. However,  my  father,  in  his  lovely,  pacific  way, 
'poured  oil  upon  the  waters/  and  we  thought  everything  was 


f, 


MARY  TODD   LINCOLN. 

From  a  carbon  enlargement,  by  Sherman  and  McHugh  of  New  York,  of  a  photo- 
aph  by  Brady.  Mary  Todd  was  born  in  Lexington,  Kentucky,  December  13,  1818. 
er  mother  died  when  she  was  young,  and  she  was  educated  at  one  of  the  best-known 
schools  of  the  State,  Madame  Mantelli's.  She  remained  there  some  four  years,  and  as 
the  school  was  conducted  entirely  in  French,  she  spoke  the  language  fluently.  She  was 
afterwards  some  time  in  the  Ward  Academy  of  Lexington.  Miss  Todd  first  visited 
pringfield  in  1837,  but  remained  only  a  few  months.  In  1839  she  returned  to  make 
her  home  with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Edwards.  She  bad  two  other  sisters  in  the  town,  Mrs. 
William  Wallace  and  Mrs.  C.  M.  Smith. 


HIS  MARRIAGE  ENGAGEMENT 


191 


'ship-shape/  when  Mrs.  Edwards  laughingly  said  :  'How  for- 
tunately you  selected  this  evening,  for  the  Episcopal  Sewing 
Society  is  to  meet  here,  and  my  supper  is  all  ordered/ 

"But  that  comfortable  little  arrangement  would  not  hold, 
as  Mary  declared  she  would  not  make  a  spectacle  for  gossip- 
ing ladies  to  gaze  upon  and  talk  about;  there  had  already 


To  any  Minister  of  die  Gospel,  or  other  authorised  Person-GRE£HN& 

a**  to 


y*  to  o     u> 


on* 


TACSIMTLH  OF  MABBIAOK  LICENSE  AND  CBBTIPIOATB  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

From  the  original  on  file  in  the  County  Clerk's  ofilce  of  Springfield,  I1L 

been  too  much  talk  about  her.  Then  my  father  was  des- 
patched to  tell  Mr.  Lincoln  that  the  wedding  would  be  de- 
ferred until  the  next  evening.  Clergyman,  attendants  and 
intimate  friends  were  notified,  and  on  Friday  evening,  in  the 
midst  of  a  small  circle  of  friends,  with  the  elements  doing 
their  worst  in  the  way  of  rain,  this  singular  courtship 
culminated  in  marriage.  This  I  know  to  be  literally  true,  as 
I  was  one  of  her  bridesmaids,  Miss  Jayne  (afterwards  Mrs. 
Lyman  Trumbull)  and  Miss  Rodney  being  the  others." 


CHAPTER  XII 

LINCOLN    BECOMES    A    CANDIDATE    FOR    CONGRESS    AND    I* 

DEFEATED ON    THE    STUMP    IN    1844 NOMINATED    AND 

ELECTED  TO  THE  3OTH  CONGRESS 

FOR  eight  successive  years  Lincoln  had  been  a  member  of 
the  General  Assembly  of  Illinois.  It  was  quite  long  enough, 
in  his  judgment,  and  his  friends  seem  to  have  wanted  to  give 
him  something  better,  for  in  1841  they  offered  to  support 
him  as  a  candidate  for  governor  of  the  State.  This,  how- 
ever, he  refused.  His  ambition  was  to  go  to  Washington. 
In  1842  he  declined  renomination  for  the  assembly  and  be- 
came a  candidate  for  Congress.  He  did  not  wait  to  be  asked, 
nor  did  he  leave  his  case  in  the  hands  of  his  friends.  He 
frankly  announced  his  desire,  and  managed  his  own  canvass. 
There  was  no  reason,  in  Lincoln's  opinion,  for  concealing 
political  ambition.  He  recognized,  at  the  same  time,  the 
legitimacy  of  the  ambition  of  his  friends,  and  entertained  no 
suspicion  or  rancor  if  they  contested  places  with  him. 

"Do  you  suppose  that  I  should  ever  have  got  into  notice 
if  I  had  waited  to  be  hunted  up  and  pushed  forward  by  older 
men?"  he  wrote  his  friend  Herndon  once,  when  the  latter 
was  complaining  that  the  older  men  did  not  help  him  on. 
"The  way  for  a  young  man  to  rise  is  to  improve  himself 
every  way  he  can,  never  suspecting  that  anybody  wishes  to 
hinder  him.  Allow  me  to  assure  you  that  suspicion  and  jeal- 
ousy never  did  help  any  man  in  any  situation.  There  may 
sometimes  be  ungenerous  attempts  to  keep  a  young  man 
down ;  and  they  will  succeed,  too,  if  he  allows  his  mind  to  be 
diverted  from  its  true  channel  to  brood  over  the  attempted 

192 


BECOMES  A  CANDIDATE  FOR  CONGRESS 

injury.    Cast  about,  and  see  if  this  feeling  has  not  injured 
every  person  you  have  ever  known  to  fall  into  it." 

Lincoln  had  something  more  to  do,  however,  in  1842,  than 
simply  to  announce  himself  in  the  innocent  manner  of  early 
politics.  The  convention  system  introduced  into  Illinois  in 
1835  by  the  Democrats  had  been  zealously  opposed  by  all 
good  Whigs,  Lincoln  included,  until  constant  defeat  taught^ 
them  that  to  resist  organization  by  an  every-man-for-himself 
policy  was  hopeless  and  wasteful,  and  that  if  they  would 
succeed  they  must  meet  organization  with  organization.  In 
1841  a  Whig  State  convention  had  been  called  to  nominate 
candidates  for  the  offices  of  governor  and  lieutenant-gover- 
nor; and  now,  in  March,  1843,  a  Whig  meeting  was  held 
again  at  Springfield,  at  which  the  party's  platform  was  laid, 
and  a  committee,  of  which  Lincoln  was  a  member,  was  ap- 
pointed to  prepare  an  "Address  to  the  People  of  Illinois." 
In  this  address  the  convention  system  was  earnestly  de- 
fended. Against  this  rapid  adoption  of  the  abominated  sys- 
tem many  of  the  Whigs  protested,  and  Lincoln  found  him- 
self supporting  before  his  constituents  the  tactics  he  had  once 
warmly  opposed.  In  a  letter  to  his  friend  John  Bennett,  of 
Petersburg,  written  in  March,  1843,  ne  said: 

"I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  any  of  the  Whigs  of  your  county, 
or  of  any  county,  should  longer  be  against  conventions.  On 
last  Wednesday  evening  a  meeting  of  all  the  Whigs  then  here 
from  all  parts  of  the  State  was  held,  and  the  question  of  the 
propriety  of  conventions  was  brought  up  and  fully  discussed, 
and  at  the  end  of  the  discussion  a  resolution  recommending 
the  system  of  conventions  to  all  the  Whigs  of  the  State  was 
unanimously  adopted.  Other  resolutions  were  also  passed, 
all  of  which  will  appear  in  the  next  'Journal/  The  meeting 
also  appointed  a  committee  to  draft  an  address  to  the  people 
of  the  State,  which  address  will  also  appear  in  the  next  'Jour- 
nal.' In  it  you  will  find  a  brief  argument  in  favor  of  con- 
ventions,  and,  although  I  wrote  it  myself,  I  will  say  to  you 
(13) 


194  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

that  it  is  conclusive  upon  the  point,  and  cannot  be  reasonably 
answered. 

"If  there  be  any  good  Whig  who  is  disposed  still  to  stick 
out  against  conventions,  get  him,  at  least,  to  read  the  argu- 
ment in  their  favor  in  the  'Address/  ' 

The  "brief  argument'*  which  Lincoln  thought  so  conclu- 
sive, "if  he  did  write  it  himself,"  justified  his  good  opinion. 
After  its  circulation  there  were  few  found  to  "stick  out 
against  conventions." 

The  Whigs  of  the  various  counties  in  the  Congressional 
district  met  on  April  5,  as  they  had  been  instructed  to  do, 
and  chose  delegates.  John  J.  Hardin  of  Jacksonville,  Ed- 
ward D.  Baker  and  Abraham  Lincoln  of  Springfield,  were 
the  three  candidates  for  whom  these  delegates  were  in- 
structed. 

To  Lincoln's  keen  disappointment,  the  delegation  from 
Sangamon  county  was  instructed  for  Baker.  A  variety  of 
social  and  personal  influences,  besides  Baker's  popularity, 
worked  against  Lincoln.  "It  would  astonish,  if  not  amuse, 
the  older  citizens,"  wrote  Lincoln  to  a  friend,  "to  learn  that 
I  (a  stranger,  friendless,  uneducated,  penniless  boy,  working 
on  a  flatboat  at  ten  dollars  per  month)  have  been  put  down 
here  as  the  candidate  of  pride,  wealth,  and  aristocratic  family 
distinction."  He  was  not  only  accused  of  being  an  aristo- 
crat, he  was  called  "a  deist."  He  had  fought,  or  been  about 
to  fight,  a  duel.  His  wife's  relations  were  Episcopalian  and 
Presbyterian.  He  and  she  attended  a  Presbyterian  church. 
These  influences  alone  could  not  be  said  to  have  defeated 
him,  he  wrote,  but  "they  levied  a  tax  of  considerable  per  cent, 
upon  my  strength." 

The  meeting  that  named  Baker  as  its  choice  for  Congress 
appointed  Lincoln  one  of  the  delegates  to  the  convention. 
"In  getting  Baker  the  nomination,"  Lincoln  wrote  to  Speed, 
"I  shall  be  fixed  a  good  deal  like  a  fellow  who  is  made  a 


BECOMES  A  CANDIDATE  FOR  CONGRESS   195 

groomsman  to  a  man  that  has  cut  him  out,  and  is  marrying 
his  own  dear  'gal/  "  From  the  first,  however,  he  stood 
bravely  by  Baker.  "I  feel  myself  bound  not  to  hinder  him  in 
any  way  from  getting  the  nomination ;  I  should  despise  my- 
self were  I  to  attempt  it,"  he  wrote  certain  of  his  constituents 
who  were  anxious  that  he  should  attempt  to  secure  the  nomi- 
nation in  spite  of  his  instructions.  It  was  soon  evident  to 
both  Lincoln  and  Baker  that  John  J.  Hardin  was  probably 
the  strongest  candidate  in  the  district,  and  so  it  proved  when 
the  convention  met  in  May,  1843,  at  Pekin. 

It  has  frequently  been  charged  that  in  this  Pekin  conven- 
tion, Hardin,  Baker,  and  Lincoln  agreed  to  take  in  turn  the 
three  next  nominations  to  Congress,  thus  establishing  a  spe- 
cies of  rotation  in  office.  This  charge  cannot  be  sustained. 
What  occurred  at  the  Pekin  convention  is  here  related  by 
one  of  the  delegates,  the  Hon.  J.  M.  Ruggles  of  Havana, 
Illinois. 

"When  the  convention  assembled,"  writes  Mr.  Ruggles, 
"Baker  was  there  with  his  friend  and  champion  delegate, 
Abraham  Lincoln.  The  ayes  and  noes  had  been  taken,  and 
there  were  fifteen  votes  apiece,  and  one  in  doubt  that  had  not 
arrived.  That  was  myself.  I  was  known  to  be  a  warm 
friend  of  Baker,  representing  people  who  were  partial  to 
Hardin.  As  soon  as  I  arrived  Baker  hurried  to  me,  saying : 
'How  is  it  ?  It  all  depends  on  you/  On  being  told  that  not- 
withstanding my  partiality  for  him,  the  people  I  represented 
expected  me  to  vote  for  Hardin,  and  that  I  would  have  tb 
\do  so,  Baker  at  once  replied:  'You  are  right — there  is  no 
/other  way/  The  convention  was  organized,  and  I  was  elected 
secretary.  Baker  immediately  arose,  and  made  a  most  thrill- 
ing address,  thoroughly  arousing  the  sympathies  of  the  con- 
vention, and  ended  by  declining  his  candidacy.  Hardin  was 
nominated  by  acclamation;  and  then  came  the  episode. 

"Immediately  after  the  nomination,  Mr.  Lincoln  walked 
across  the  room  to  my  table,  and  asked  if  I  would  favor  a 
resolution  recommending  Baker  for  the  next  term.  On  be- 


196  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

ing  answered  in  the  affirmative,  he  said:  'You  prepare  the 
resolution,  I  will  support  it,  and  I  think  we  can  pass  it.'  The 
resolution  created  a  profound  sensation,  especially  with  the 
friends  of  Hardin.  After  an  excited  and  angry  discussion, 
the  resolution  passed  by  a  majority  of  one." 

Lincoln  supported  Hardin  energetically  in  the  campaign 
which  followed.  In  a  letter  to  the  former  written  on  May 
nth,  just  after  the  convention,  he  says: 

"Butler  informs  me  that  he  received  a  letter  from  you  in 
which  you  expressed  some  doubt  as  to  whether  the  Whigs  of 
Sangamon  will  support  you  cordially.  You  may  at  once  dis- 
miss all  fears  on  that  subject.  We  have  already  resolved  to 
make  a  particular  effort  to  give  you  the  very  largest  majority 
possible  in  our  county.  From  this  no  Whig  of  the  county 
dissents.  We  have  many  objects  for  doing  it.  We  make  it 
a  matter  of  honor  and  pride  to  do  it ;  we  do  it  because  we  love 
the  Whig  cause;  we  do  it  because  we  like  you  personally; 
and,  last,  we  wish  to  convince  you  that  we  do  not  bear  that 
hatred  to  Morgan  County  that  you  people  have  seemed  so 
long  to  imagine.  You  will  see  by  the  'Journal'  of  this  week 
that  we  propose,  upon  pain  of  losing  a  barbecue,  to  give  you 
twice  as  great  a  majority  in  this  county  as  you  shall  receive 
in  your  own.  I  got  up  the  proposal." 

Lincoln  was  true  to  his  promise  and  after  Hardin  was 
elected  and  in  Washington  he  kept  him  informed  of  much 
that  went  on  in  the  district ;  thus  in  an  amusing  letter  written 
in  May,  1844,  while  the  latter  was  in  Congress,  he  tells  him 
of  one  disgruntled  constituent  who  must  be  pacified,  giving 
him,  at  the  same  time,  a  hint  as  to  the  temper  of  the  "Loco 
focos." 

"Knowing  that  you  have  correspondents  enough,  I  have 
forborne  to  trouble  you  heretofore,"  he  writes;  "and  I  now 
only  do  so  to  get  you  to  set  a  matter  right  which  has  got 
wrong  with  one  of  our  best  friends.  It  is  old  Uncle  Thomas 
Campbell  of  Spring  Creek  (Berlin  P.  O.).  He  has  received 


BECOMES  A  CANDIDATE  FOR  CONGRESS    197 

several  documents  from  you,  and  he  says  they  are  old  news- 
papers and  old  documents,  having  no  sort  of  interest  in  them. 
He  is,  therefore,  getting  a  strong  impression  that  you  treat 
him  with  disrespect.  This,  I  know,  is  a  mistaken  impres- 
sion, and  you  must  correct  it.  The  way,  I  leave  to  yourself. 
Robert  W.  Canfield  says  he  would  like  to  have  a  document 
or  two  from  you. 

"The  Locos  here  are  in  considerable  trouble  about  Van 
Buren's  letter  on  Texas,  and  the  Virginia  electors.  They  are 
growing  sick  of  the  tariff  question,  and  consequently  are 
much  confounded  at  Van  Buren's  cutting  them  off  from  the 
new  Texas  question.  Nearly  half  the  leaders  swear  they 
won't  stand  it.  Of  those  are  Ford,  T.  Campbell,  Ewing, 
Calhoun,  and  others.  They  don't  exactly  say  they  won't  go 
for  Van  Buren,  but  they  say  he  will  not  be  the  candidate,  and 
that  they  are  for  Texas  anyhow." 

The  resolution  passed  at  the  Pekin  convention  in  1843  was 
remembered  and  respected  by  the  Whigs  when  the  time  came 
to  nominate  Hardin's  successor.  Baker  was  selected  and 
elected,  Lincoln  working  for  him  as  loyally  as  he  had  for 
Hardin.  In  this  campaign — that  of  1844 — Lincoln  was  a 
presidential  elector.  He  went  into  the  canvass  with  unusual 
ardor  for  Henry  Clay  was  the  candidate  and  Lincoln  shared 
the  popular  idolatry  of  the  man.  His  devotion  was  not 
merely  a  sentiment,  however.  He  had  been  an  intelligent 
student  of  Clay's  public  life,  and  his  sympathy  was  all  with 
the  principles  of  the  "gallant  Harry  of  the  West."  Through- 
out the  campaign  he  worked  zealously,  travelling  all  over  the 
State,  speaking  and  talking.  As  a  rule,  he  was  accompanied 
by  a  Democrat.  The  two  went  unannounced,  simply  stop- 
ping at  some  friendly  house.  On  their  arrival  the  word  was 
sent  around,  "the  candidates  are  here,"  and  the  men  of  the 
neighbofhood  gathered  to  hear  the  discussion,  which  was  car- 
ried on  in  the  most  informal  way,  the  candidates  frequently 
sitting  tipped  back  against  the  side  of  the  house,  or  perched 
on  a  rail,  whittling  during  the  debates.  Nor  was  all  of  this 


198  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

electioneering  done  by  argument.  Many  votes  were  still 
cast  in  Illinois  out  of  personal  liking,  and  the  wily  candidate 
did  his  best  to  make  himself  agreeable,  particularly  to  the 
women  of  the  household.  The  Hon.  William  L.  D.  Ewing, 
a  Democrat  who  travelled  with  Lincoln  in  one  campaign, 
used  to  tell  a  story  of  how  he  and  Lincoln  were  eager  to 
win  the  favor  of  one  of  their  hostesses,  whose  husband  was 
an  important  man  in  his  neighborhood.  Neither  had  made 
much  progress  until  at  milking-time  Mr.  Ewing  started  after 
the  woman  of  the  house  as  she  went  to  the  yard,  took  her 
pail,  and  insisted  on  milking  the  cow  himself.  He  naturally 
felt  that  this  was  a  master  stroke.  But  receiving  no  reply 
from  the  hostess,  to  whom  he  had  been  talking  loudly  as  he 
milked,  he  looked  around,  only  to  see  her  and  Lincoln  lean- 
ing comfortably  over  the  bars,  engaged  in  an  animated  dis- 
cussion. By  the  time  he  had  completed  his  self-imposed  task, 
Lincoln  had  captivated  the  hostess,  and  all  Mr.  Ewing  re- 
ceived for  his  pains  was  hearty  thanks  for  giving  her  a 
chance  to  have  so  pleasant  a  talk  with  Mr.  Lincoln. 

Lincoln's  speeches  at  this  time  were  not  confined  to  his 
own  State.  He  made  several  in  Indiana,  being  invited 
thither  by  prominent  Whig  politicians  who  had  heard  him 
speak  in  Illinois.  The  first  and  most  important  of  his  meet- 
ings in  Indiana  was  at  Bruceville.  The  Democrats,  learning 
'of  the  proposed  Whig  gathering,  arranged  one,  for  the  same 
evening,  with  Lieutenant  William  W.  Carr  of  Vincennes  as 
speaker.  As  might  have  been  expected  from  the  excited 
state  of  politics  at  the  moment,  the  proximity  of  the  two 
mass-meetings  aroused  party  loyalty  to  a  fighting  pitch. 
"Each  party  was  determined  to  break  up  the  other's  speak- 
ing," writes  Miss  O'Flynn,  in  a  description  of  the  Bruceville 
meeting  prepared  from  interviews  with  those  who  took  part 
in  it.  "The  night  was  made  hideous  with  the  rattle  of  tin 
pans  and  bells  and  the  blare  of  cow-horns.  In  spite  of  all 


CRAWFORD    WELL. 


In  a  field  near  the  Crawford  house  is  a  well  which  is  pointed  out  to  sight- 
seers as  one  which  Lincoln  helped  to  dig.  Many  things  about  the  Crawford 
place — fences,  corn-cribs,  house,  barn — were  built  in  part  by  Mr.  Lincoln. 


THE    CRAWFORD    HOUSE. 

The  house  of  Josiah  Crawford,  near  Gentryville,  Indiana.  Here  Mr.  Lincoln  worked  by  the 
day  for  several  months,  and  his  sister  was  a  "hired  girl"  for  Mrs.  Crawford.  In  1829  Mr.  Lincoln 
cut  down  timber  and  whip-sawed  it  into  planks  for  a  new  house  which  his  father  proposed  to  build; 
but  Thomas  Lincoln  had  decided  to  go  to  Illinois  before  the  new  house  was  begun,  and  Abraham 
sold  his  planks  to  Mr.  Crawford,  who  worked  them  into  the  southeast  room  of  his  house,  where 
relic-seekers  have  since  cut  them  to  pieces  to  make  canes.  This  picture  is  made  after  a  photo- 
graph taken  before  the  death  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crawford,  both  of  whom  are  shown  here. 


BECOMES  A  CANDIDATE  FOR  CONGRESS   199 

the  din  and  uproar  of  the  younger  element,  a  few  grown-up 
male  radicals  and  partisan  women  sang  and  cheered  loudly 
for  their  favorites,  who  kept  on  with  their  flow  of  political 
information.  Lieutenant  Carr  stood  in  his  carriage,  and  ad- 
dressed the  crowd  around  him,  while  a  local  politician  acted 
as  grand  marshal  of  the  night,  and  urged  the  yelling  Demo- 
cratic legion  to  surge  to  the  schoolhouse,  where  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  speaking,  and  run  the  Whigs  from  their  head- 
quarters. Old  men  now  living,  who  were  big  boys  then,  can- 
not remember  any  of  the  burning  eloquence  of  either  speaker. 
As  they  now  laughingly  express  it:  'We  were  far  more  in- 
terested in  the  noise  than  the  success  of  the  speakers,  and  we 
ran  backward  and  forward  from  one  camp  to  the  other/  ' 

Fortunately,  the  remaining  speeches  in  Indiana  were  made 
under  more  dignified  conditions.  One  was  delivered  at 
Rockport;  another  "from  the  door  of  a  harness  shop"  near 
Gentryville,  Lincoln's  old  home  in  Indiana;  and  a  third  at 
the  "Old  Carter  School"  in  the  same  neighborhood.  At  the 
delivery  of  the  last  many  of  Lincoln's  old  neighbors  were 
present,  and  they  still  tell  of  the  cordial  way  in  which  he 
greeted  them  and  inquired  for  old  friends.  After  his  speech 
he  drove  home  with  Mr.  Josiah  Crawford,  for  whom  he  had 
once  worked  as  a  day  laborer.  His  interest  in  every  familiar 
spot — a  saw-pit  where  he  had  once  worked — the  old  swim- 
ming pool,  the  town  grocery,  the  mill,  the  blacksmith  shop, 
surprised  and  flattered  everybody.  "He  went  round  inspect- 
ing everything,"  declares  one  of  his  hosts.  So  vivid  were 
the  memories  which  this  visit  to  Gentryville  aroused,  so  deep 
were  Lincoln's  emotions,  that  he  even  attempted  to  express 
them  in  verse.  A  portion  of  the  lines  he  wrote  have  been 
preserved,  the  only  remnants  of  his  various  early  attempts 
at  versification. 

In  this  campaign  of  1844  Lincoln  for  the  second  time  in 
his  political  life  met  the  slavery  question.  The  chief  issue  of 


366  LIFE  OP  LINCOLN 

that  campaign  was  the  annexation  of  Texas.  The  Whigs, 
under  Clay's  leadership,  opposed  it.  To  annex  Texas  with- 
out the  consent  of  Mexico  would  compromise  our  national 
reputation  for  fair  dealing,  Clay  argued;  it  would  bring  on 
war  with  Mexico,  destroy  the  existing  relations  between 
North  and  South  and  compel  the  North  to  annex  Canada, 
and  it  would  tend  to  extend  rather  than  restrict  slavery. 

A  large  party  of  strong  anti-slavery  people  in  the  North 
felt  that  Clay  did  not  give  enough  importance  to  the  anti- 
slavery  argument  and  they  nominated  a  third  candidate, 
James  G.  Birney.  This  "Liberal  Party"  as  it  was  called,  had 
a  fair  representation  in  Illinois  and  Lincoln  must  have  en- 
countered them  frequently,  though  what  arguments  he  used 
against  them,  if  any,  we  do  not  know,  no  extracts  of  his  1844 
speeches  being  preserved. 

The  next  year,  1845,  ne  found  the  abolition  sentiment 
stronger  than  ever.  Prominent  among  the  leaders  of  the 
third  party  in  the  State  were  two  brothers,  Williamson  and 
Madison  Durley  of  Hennepin,  Illinois.  They  were  outspo- 
ken advocates  of  their  principles,  and  even  operated  a  sta- 
tion of  the  underground  railroad.  Lincoln  knew  the  Dur- 
leys,  and,  when  visiting  Hennepin  to  speak,  solicited  their 
support.  They  opposed  their  liberty  principles.  When  Lin- 
coln returned  to  Springfield  he  wrote  Williamson  Durley  a 
letter  which  sets  forth  with  admirable  clearness  his  exact 
position  on  the  slavery  question  at  that  period.  It  is  the 
most  valuable  document  on  the  question  which  we  have  up 
to  this  point  in  Lincoln's  life. 

"When  I  saw  you  at  home/'  Lincoln  began,  "it  was  agreed 
that  I  should  write  to  you  and  your  brother  Madison.  Until 
I  then  saw  you  I  was  not  aware  of  your  being  what  is  gen- 
erally called  an  Abolitionist,  or,  as  you  call  yourself,  a  Lib- 
erty man,  though  I  well  knew  there  were  many  such  in  your 
county. 


BECOMES  A  CANDIDATE  FOR  CONGRESS  2OI 

"I  was  glad  to  hear  that  you  intended  to  attempt  to  bring 
about,  at  the  next  election  in  Putnam,  a  union  of  the  Whigs 
proper  and  such  of  the  Liberty  men  as  are  Whigs  in  principle 
on  all  questions  save  only  that  of  slavery.  So  far  as  I  can 
perceive,  by  such  union  neither  party  need  yield  anything  on 
the  point  in  difference  between  them.  If  the  Whig  abolition- 
ists of  New  York  had  voted  with  us  last  fall,  Mr.  Clay  would 
now  be  President,  Whig  principles  in  the  ascendant,  and 
Texas  not  annexed ;  whereas,  by  the  division,  all  that  either 
had  at  stake  in  the  contest  was  lost.  And,  indeed,  it  was  ex- 
tremely probable,  beforehand,  that  such  would  be  the  result. 
As  I  always  understood,  the  Liberty  men  deprecated  the  an- 
nexation of  Texas  extremely;  and  this  being  so,  why  they 
should  refuse  to  cast  their  votes  (so)  as  to  prevent  it,  even 
to  me  seemed  wonderful.  What  was  their  process  of  rea- 
soning, I  can  only  judge  from  what  a  single  one  of  them  told 
me.  It  was  this :  'We  are  not  to  do  evil  that  good  may  come/ 
This  general  proposition  is  doubtless  correct;  but  did  it  ap- 
ply? If  by  your  votes  you  could  have  prevented  the  exten- 
sion, etc.,  of  slavery,  would  it  not  have  been  good,  and  not 
evil,  so  to  have  used  your  votes,  even  though  it  involved  the 
casting  of  them  for  a  slave-holder  ?  By  the  fruit  the  tree  is 
to  be  known.  An  evil  tree  cannot  bring  forth  good  fruit.  If 
the  fruit  of  electing  Mr.  Clay  would  have  been  to  prevent  the 
extension  of  slavery,  could  the  act  of  electing  have  been  evil  ? 

"But  I  will  not  argue  further.  I  perhaps  ought  to  say  that 
individually  I  never  was  much  interested  in  the  Texas  ques- 
tion. I  never  could  see  much  good  to  come  of  annexation, 
inasmuch  as  they  were  already  a  free  republican  people  on 
our  own  model.  On  the  other  hand,  I  never  could  very 
clearly  see  how  the  annexation  would  augment  the  evil  of 
slavery.  It  always  seemed  to  me  that  slaves  would  be  taken 
there  in  about  equal  numbers,  with  or  without  annexation. 
And  if  more  were  taken  because  of  annexation,  still  there 
would  be  just  so  many  the  fewer  left  where  they  were  taken 
from.  It  is  possibly  true,  to  some  extent,  that,  with  annexa- 
tion, some  slaves  may  be  sent  to  Texas  and  continued  in 
slavery  that  otherwise  might  have  been  liberated.  To  what- 
ever extent  this  may  be  true,  I  think  annexation  an  evil.  I 
hold  it  to  be  a  paramount  duty  of  us  in  the  free  States,  due 
to  the  Union  of  the  States,  and  perhaps  to  liberty  itself 


LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

(paradox  though  it  may  seem),  to  let  the  slavery  of  the  other 
States  alone;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  I  hold  it  to  be  equally 
clear  that  we  should  never  knowingly  lend  ourselves,  directly 
or  indirectly,  to  prevent  that  slavery  from  dying  a  natural 
death — to  find  new  places  for  it  to  live  in,  when  it  can  no 
longer  exist  in  the  old.  Of  course  I  am  not  now  consider- 
ing what  would  be  our  duty  in  cases  of  insurrection  among 
the  slaves.  To  recur  to  the  Texas  question,  I  understand  the 
Liberty  men  to  have  viewed  annexation  as  a  much  greater 
evil  than  ever  I  did;  and  I  would  like  to  convince  you,  if  I 
could,  that  they  could  have  prevented  it,  without  violation  of 
principle,  if  they  had  chosen." 

At  the  time  that  Lincoln  wrote  the  above  letter  to  the 
Durley  brothers  he  was  working  for  a  nomination  to  Con- 
gress. In  1843  ne  had  helped  elect  his  friend  Hardin.  He 
had  secured  the  nomination  for  Baker  in  1844  and  had 
worked  faithfully  to  elect  him.  Now  he  felt  that  his  duty  to 
his  friends  was  discharged  and  that  he  was  free  to  try  for 
himself.  He  undoubtedly  hoped  that  neither  of  his  friends 
would  contest  the  nomination.  Baker  did  not  but  late  in 
1845  ft  became  evident  that  Hardin  might.  Lincoln  was 
worried  over  the  prospect.  "The  paper  at  Pekin  has  nomi- 
nated Hardin  for  governor,"  he  wrote  his  friend  B.  F.  James 
in  November,  "and,  commenting  on  this,  the  Alton  papers 
indirectly  nominated  him  for  Congress.  It  would  give  Har- 
din a  great  start,  and  perhaps  use  me  up,  if  the  Whig  papers 
of  the  district  should  nominate  him  for  Congress.  If  your 
feelings  toward  me  are  the  same  as  when  you  saw  me  (which 
I  have  no  reason  to  doubt),  I  wish  you  would  let  nothing 
appear  in  your  paper  which  may  operate  against  me.  You 
understand.  Matters  stand  just  as  they  did  when  I  saw  you. 
Baker  is  certainly  off  the  track,  and  I  fear  Hardin  intends 
to  be  on  it." 

Hardin  certainly  was  free  to  run  for  Congress  if  he 
wanted  to.  He  had  voluntarily  declined  the  nomination  in 


BECOMES  A  CANDIDATE  FOR  CONGRESS  203 

1844,  because  of  the  events  of  the  Pekin  convention,  but  he 
had  made  no  promise  to  do  so  in  1846.  Many  of  the  Whigs 
of  the  district  had  not  expected  him  to  be  a  candidate,  how- 
ever,  arguing  that  Lincoln,  because  of  his  relation  to  the 
party,  should  be  given  his  turn.  "We  do  not  entertain  a 
doubt,"  wrote  the  editor  of  the  "Sangamon  Journal/'  in 
February,  1846,  "that  if  we  could  reverse  the  positions  of 
the  two  men,  a  very  large  portion  of  those  who  now  support 
Mr.  Lincoln  most  warmly  would  support  General  Hardin 
quite  as  well. " 

As  time  went  on  and  Lincoln  found  in  all  probability  that 
Hardin  would  enter  the  race,  it  made  him  anxious  and  a 
little  melancholy.  In  writing  to  his  friend  Dr.  Robert  Boal  of 
Lacon,  Illinois,  on  January  7,  1846,  he  said: 

"Since  I  saw  you  last  fall,  I  have  often  thought  of  writing 
you,  as  it  was  then  understood  I  would ;  but,  on  reflection,  I 
have  always  found  that  I  had  nothing  new  to  tell  you.  All 
has  happened  as  I  then  told  you  I  expected  it  would — Baker's 
declining,  Hardin's  taking  the  track,  and  so  on. 

"If  Hardin  and  I  stood  precisely  equal — that  is,  if  neither 
of  us  had  been  to  Congress,  or  if  we  both  had — it  would  not 
only  accord  with  what  I  have  always  done,  for  the  sake  of 
peace,  to  give  way  to  him ;  and  I  expect  I  should  do  it.  That 
I  can  voluntarily  postpone  my  pretensions,  when  they  are  no 
more  than  equal  to  those  to  which  they  are  postponed,  you 
have  yourself  seen.  But  to  yield  to  Hardin  under  present 
circumstances  seems  to  me  as  nothing  else  than  yielding  to 
one  who  would  gladly  sacrifice  me  altogether.  This  I  would 
rather  not  submit  to.  That  Hardin  is  talented,  energetic, 
unusually  generous  and  magnanimous,  I  have,  before  this, 
affirmed  to  you,  and  do  not  now  deny.  You  know  that  my 
only  argument  is  that  'turn  about  is  fair  play/  This  he,  prac- 
tically at  least,  denies. 

"If  it  would  not  be  taxing  you  too  much,  I  wish  you  would 
write  me,  telling  the  aspect  of  things  in  your  county,  or 
rather  your  district ;  and  also  send  the  names  of  some  of  your 
Whig  neighbors  to  whom  I  might,  with  propriety,  write* 


5O4  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

Unless  I  can  get  some  one  to  do  this,  Hardin,  with  his  cM 
franking  list,  will  have  the  advantage  of  me.  My  reliance 
for  a  fair  shake  (and  I  want  nothing  more)  in  your  county 
is  chiefly  on  you,  because  of  your  position  and  standing,  and 
because  I  am  acquainted  with  so  few  others.  Let  me  hear 
from  you  soon." 

Lincoln  followed  the  vibrations  of  feeling  in  the  various 
counties  with  extreme  nicety,  studying  every  individual 
whose  loyalty  he  suspected  or  whose  vote  was  not  yet 
pledged.  "Nathan  Dresser  is  here,"  he  wrote  to  his  friend 
Bennett,  on  January  15,  1846,  "and  speaks  as  though  the 
contest  between  Hardin  and  me  is  to  be  doubtful  in  Menard 
county.  I  know  he  is  candid,  and  this  alarms  me  some.  I 
asked  him  to  tell  me  the  names  of  the  men  that  were  going 
strong  for  Hardin;  he  said  Morris  was  about  as  strong  as 
any.  Now  tell  me,  is  Morris  going  it  openly  ?  You  remem- 
ber you  wrote  me  that  he  would  be  neutral.  Nathan  also 
said  that  some  man  (who  he  could  not  remember)  had  said 
lately  that  Menard  county  was  again  to  decide  the  contest, 
and  that  made  the  contest  very  doubtful.  Do  you  know  who 
that  was  ? 

"Don't  fail  me  to  write  me  instantly  on  receiving,  telling 
me  all — particularly  the  names  of  those  who  are  going  strong 
against  me." 

In  January,  General  Hardin  suggested  that  since  he  and 
Lincoln  were  the  only  persons  mentioned  as  candidates,  there 
be  no  convention,  but  the  selection  be  left  to  the  Whig  voters 
of  the  district.  Lincoln  refused. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  he  wrote  Hardin,  "that  on  reflection  you 
will  see  the  fact  of  your  having  been  in  Congress  has,  in 
various  ways,  so  spread  your  name  in  the  district  as  to  give 
you  a  decided  advantage  in  such  a  stipulation.  I  appreciate 
your  desire  to  keep  down  excitement;  and  I  promise  you  to 
'keep  cool'  under  all  circumstances.  ...  I  have  always 
been  in  the  habit  of  acceding  to  almost  any  proposal  trr^t  a 


BECOMES  A  CANDIDATE  FOR  CONGRESS  205 

friend  would  make,  and  I  am  truly  sorry  that  I  cannot  in 
this.  I  perhaps  ought  to  mention  that  some  friends  at  dif- 
ferent places  are  endeavoring  to  secure  the  honor  of  the  sit- 
ting of  the  convention  at  their  towns  respectively,  and  I  fear 
that  they  would  not  feel  much  complimented  if  we  shall 
make  a  bargain  that  it  should  sit  nowhere." 

After  General  Hardin  received  this  refusal  he  withdrew 
from  the  contest,  in  a  manly  and  generous  letter  which  was 
warmly  approved  by  the  Whigs  of  the  district.  Both  men 
were  so  much  loved  that  a  break  between  them  would  have 
been  a  disastrous  thing  for  the  party.  "We  are  truly  glad 
that  a  contest  which  in  its  nature  was  calculated  to  weaken 
the  ties  of  friendship  has  terminated  amicably,"  said  the 
Sangamon  "Journal." 

The  charge  that  Hardin,  Baker,  and  Lincoln  tried  to 
ruin  one  another  in  this  contest  for  Congress  has  often 
been  denied  by  their  associates,  and  never  more  em- 
phatically than  by  Judge  Gillespie,  an  influential  politician  of 
the  State.  "Hardin,"  Judge  Gillespie  says,  "was  one  of  the 
most  unflinching  and  unfaltering  Whigs  that  ever  drew  the 
breath  of  life.  He  was  a  mirror  of  chivalry,  and  so  was 
Baker.  Lincoln  had  boundless  respect  for,  and  confidence  in, 
them  both.  He  knew  they  would  sacrifice  themselves  rather 
than  do  an  act  that  could  savor  in  the  slightest  degree  of 
meanness  or  dishonor.  These  men,  Lincoln,  Hardin  and 
Baker,  were  bosom  friends,  to  my  certain  knowledge.  .  . 
Lincoln  felt  that  they  could  be  actuated  by  nothing  but  the 
most  honorable  sentiments  towards  him.  For  although  they 
were  rivals,  they  were  all  three  men  of  the  most  punctilious 
honor,  and  devoted  friends.  I  knew  them  intimately,  and 
can  say  confidently  that  there  never  was  a  particle  of  envy  on 
the  part  of  one  towards  the  other.  The  rivalry  between  them 
was  of  the  most  honorable  and  friendly  character,  and  when 
Hardin  and  Baker  were  killed  (Hardin  in  Mexico,  and  Baker 


306  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

at  Ball's  Bluff)  Lincoln  felt  that  in  the  death  of  each  he  had 
lost  a  dear  and  true  friend." 

After  Hardin's  withdrawal,  Lincoln  went  about  in  his 
characteristic  way  trying  to  soothe  his  and  Hardin's  friends. 
"Previous  to  General  Hardin's  withdrawal,"  he  wrote  one  of 
his  correspondents,  "some  of  his  friends  and  some  of  mine 
had  become  a  little  warm ;  and  I  felt  .  .  .  that  for  them 
now  to  meet  face  to  face  and  converse  together  was  the  best 
wi  y  to  efface  any  remnant  of  unpleasant  feeling,  if  any  such 
existed.  I  did  not  suppose  that  General  Hardin's  friends 
were  in  any  greater  need  of  having  their  feelings  corrected 
than  mine  were." 

In  May,  Lincoln  was  nominated.  His  Democratic  oppo- 
nent was  Peter  Cartwright,  the  famous  Methodist  exhorter, 
the  most  famous  itinerant  preacher  of  the  pioneer  era.  Cart- 
wright  had  moved  from  Kentucky  to  Illinois  when  still  a 
young  man  to  get  into  a  free  State,  and  had  settled  in  the 
Sangamon  valley,  near  Springfield.  For  the  next  forty  years 
he  travelled  over  the  State,  most  of  the  time  on  horseback, 
preaching  the  gospel  in  his  unique  and  rugged  fashion.  His 
district  was  at  first  so  large  (extending  from  Kaskaskia  to 
Galena)  that  he  was  unable  to  traverse  the  whole  of  it  in  the 
same  year.  He  was  elected  to  the  legislature  in  1828  and 
again  in  1832;  Lincoln,  in  the  latter  year,  being  an  opposing 
candidate.  In  1840  when  he  was  the  Democratic  nominee 
for  Congress  against  Lincoln  he  was  badly  beaten.  Cart- 
wright  now  made  an  energetic  canvass,  his  chief  weapon 
against  Lincoln  being  the  old  charges  of  atheism  and  aris- 
tocracy; but  they  failed  of  effect,  and  in  August,  Lincoln 
was  elected. 

The  contest  over,  sudden  and  cfiaracteristic  disillusion 
seized  him.  "  Being  elected  to  Congress,  though  I  am  grate, 
ful  to  our  friends  for  having  done  it,  has  not  pleased  me  as 
much  as  I  expected,"  he  wrote  Speed. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SANTA  CRUZ 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  DATE  stamped  below. 


100m-8,'65(F6282s8)2373 


